


War for Genius

by Pilyarquitect



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Brainwashing, Food Deprivation, Honorary Duck Family Member Webby Vanderquack, Isolation, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Mark Beaks isn't a good guy, translated from the original
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 33
Words: 89,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pilyarquitect/pseuds/Pilyarquitect
Summary: Mark Beaks is impressed with Huey and his ability to solve the Gizmoduck costume problem, so he wants the little duck to work for him.At any cost.This is a translation from the original story, and I want to thank Empro8 who helped me editing this translation.
Relationships: Donald Duck & Huey Duck & Dewey Duck & Louie Duck, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera & Huey Duck, Huey Duck & Dewey Duck & Louie Duck
Comments: 198
Kudos: 156





	1. 1.- Interest or obsession

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Guerra de Genios](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18233378) by [Pilyarquitect](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pilyarquitect/pseuds/Pilyarquitect). 



> Hello everyone!!!! How are all of you handling all this situation? I hope you’re fine, or as fine as you can be. Welp said that, I bring you a new story, actually not a new story but a translated version of my story ‘Guerra de Genios’.
> 
> I’m very, very, very grateful to EmPro8 since she helped me editing my translations. Without her, this story would harder to read and some parts probably hard to understand. I’m really blessed for having her help.
> 
> That said, I really hope that you’ll enjoy it! Let’s begin.

The situation had finally calmed down. What was previously an uproar was now just the whispers of the few people who were still gathered around the building. Everything seemed to be a happy ending now. Well… happy more than less because all the people were safe, but not overly happy because apparently Gizmoduck had died saving all of them. But Mark Beaks was not happy, he was not at all. What had happened there that afternoon was going to ruin much of his and Waddle’s image, and that was somewhat difficult to recover.

After what happened, just a few minutes ago, he’d been viewed as a complete idiot. More than that, he was portrayed as an irresponsible person who puts people in danger rather than helping them. And all this mess caused by a comment that angered him, a simple comment pronounced by someone who had long since stopped admiring him, without Beaks having done anything to deserve such contempt from that person.

Mark's eyes traveled to who was truly responsible of everything that had happened there that afternoon. A young duckling dressed in a red shirt and a cap of the same color (Huey if he remembered well). The boy was there, standing next to one of the journalists who had come to cover his press conference. Mark focused all his attention on him and glared at him, eyes full of fury.

If it hadn’t been for the interference of that kid, his press conference wouldn’t have become a potential massacre. But that wasn’t the case. When he came down with the Waddleduck suit for his daily press conference, there was the duckling, manifesting against Waddleduck. Why? Mark had seen the news the previous day, and he knew that boy had been very excited about the appearance of a new robotic superhero. Why did he change his mind when that superhero started working for Waddle? What was wrong with the fact that even he himself as CEO and principal image of Waddle, had decided to be the new Waddleduck? Seriously, that boy was a real headache.

But there was something else about this young duckling, something that the boy was capable of solving. Something the manufacturer of the Guizmo Suit and even Mark himself had failed to solve! And that something was to give to the suit an organic processor and not an artificial one. An organic processor that wouldn’t explode if overloaded. How could the young boy come up with such a conclusion or even be capable of fixing the suit’s connections to make this a reality in an emergency situation? It was a mystery, but that in turn showed him one thing: That boy was a genius.

Actually... Mark had already realized that this child was... efficient, organized, diligent and a committed worker. Except when he went crazy after appointing the other child as vice president. But pushing that little detail aside, Beaks saw it after having fired them both for the entire TAH-DAH project incident. Yes, after the two brothers left, Mark reviewed the work the two ducklings had done, and realized that the one who wore red had done in a few hours the work that many of his employees did in a few days. He was so good that with just a few hours he knew almost perfectly the internal distribution of his company.

If all his workers were as efficient as that boy, his fortune would probably now be greater than the fortune of Scrooge McDuck himself. Ah, but he’d to realize that when it was too late. He’d spoiled a unique opportunity.

Focusing all his attention on the kid again, an anger started to rise inside of him. He was furious with the boy, but at the same time he was fascinated. Ideas kept coming to his mind of everything that he could achieve if the boy worked for him. He had so many ideas, so many plans… but as much as he wanted the kid being at his service, he knew for sure that that was something that wouldn’t never happen, he’d never accept a job at Waddle again.

Suddenly, Mark saw how the kid looked down to the water and shouted:

“Hey, there’s someone there!”

The police officer who had been circling the area quickly approached to look, and Mark realized that her face paled. She had probably recognized whoever was there, because he almost instantly heard her scream:

“¡Fenton!”

Fenton? Wasn’t that the name of the one in the Gizmo Suit? Did it mean that Gizmoduck had survived? Great, the other top responsible for his downfall.

From where he was sitting, Mark saw how the health aids quickly came to help Fenton. They put him on a stretcher and took him to an ambulance, with the police officer always by his side. As they passed him, Mark found that he was indeed the one wearing Gizmoduck's suit before he appropriated it.

Mark felt his anger grow even more, between Gizmoduck and that little duck dressed in red, they had ruined everything. Also, the Waddle’s CEO still remembered (not with much enthusiasm) that the same duck accused him of kidnapping his great-uncle during the birthday party of even though he didn’t do anything! And on top of that he was expelled from that house in a very bad way, thrown without ceremonies through a window. Not to mention that the kid was able to throw his last replacement mobile phone over the rooftop. How could someone be so cruel? Those were some of the motives that made him feel resentment against the boy. He wanted make the kid pay for all the humiliations he’d suffered every time they crossed paths.

But, how to accomplish such a feat? What was clear to Mark was that he didn’t want the typical revenge of torturing his victim until he begged for his death. No, that wasn’t his style. And he also really wanted to have this kid, and the ideas he could have, at his service. And maybe… maybe there was a way he could get it. He’d try to talk with the boy, hoping if by some miracle he’d accept to work for him, and, if he did, Mark’d have him sign a contract that would link Huey to him for life. But, in case of not accepting, he’d have to resort to... other methods to get that new employee.

Mark knew that he was starting to get obsessed with the boy, it’s the same that happened with Gizmoduck. But to be honest, what he saw the kid to do just a few minutes ago, playing with the cables and connecting them to the first one so that the connections he’d established would perform the function he wanted, it was something really brilliant. And in such a short time and under pressure and risk of his own life? Simply magnificent. He needed this child, at any cost.

Speaking of the young duckling, it seemed that the boy was leaving soon, because he saw him take his mobile phone, probably to give someone the advice that he was coming back home and after that, he started to walk away from the place.

Mark immediately stood up and he turned his back on the boy so that he wouldn’t see him. From his position he was keeping an eye on the red duckling’s movements. And when the duckling passed by him, Waddle’s CEO quickly spun around and grabbed the child by the arm, and dragging him to the other side of the ambulance he had been leaning against. He wants to speak quietly, without anyone seeing and disturbing them.

To feel that he was suddenly grabbed and diverted from his course made Huey let out a frightened Yelp. But Mark ignored it. He was going to talk with him, whether the boy liked it or not.

When he was sure that nobody could see them, he dropped the duckling and turned to face him, saying with false enthusiasm:

“Hi kid!”

The young boy dressed in red frowned and crossed his arms. He asked with an angry voice:

“What do you want now Beaks?”

 _Okay, this will be complicated_. It was clear that the young kid was still furious with him, if he wanted to have the slightest hope of getting the boy work for him, he’d to… lie. Pretend to succeed. Thankfully, he was pretty good on it, first of all, he’d to pretend shame and sorrow for whatever that happened and then he’d have to move on to admire and flatter the boy for how well he’d solved the problem, yes, if he followed that strategy, that should work:

“Well, you see… I… wanted to apologize for all what happened here and also… I wanted to say that you’ve left me very surprised, more than that, impressed about how you’ve got that the GizmoDuck suit user have the completely control of its functions.”

Beaks didn’t know if Huey knew who was the one inside the armor, so he decided to keep it as a secret, just for if the boy preferred to admire a secret identity hero over than know who was hiding under that helmet.

On the other side the Waddle’s CEO checked joyfully that Huey's features softened slightly at the mention of his work with the suit. Yes, flattery had worked.

The boy with red cap put down both arms and with a bit excited voice he said:

“Really?”

Beaks smiled, maybe he’d make the duckling work for him willingly. So, while still smiling, he replied:

“Yes, of course.”

Then the kid adopted a reflexive pose, his and his gaze drifted to the ground, after a few seconds, he looked back at Beaks and said:

“Okay, I accept your apologize, but I think you should publicly apologize to everyone who has been in danger this afternoon, not just with me,”

Beaks felt his blood starting to boil, how dared a ten years old kid to suggest how had he to act? Mark tried to calm down himself, he didn’t want the kid seeing through his mask. Instead of that, he stared looking the boy in silence, because the kid was looking the ground again, he seemed to be searching the best way to say whatever he was going to say next. When he talked again, his voice got out a little hesitant while he said:

“And… thanks for… the praise.”

After saying that, the young boy turned around to leave, but Mark called him to stop him, and when the young boy turned around again, he talked to him saying:

“Hey, there’s something I wanted to talk with you. Would you want to work for Waddle?”

The kid did not hesitate with his response:

“No!” he answered quickly and dryly.

His response was so instantaneous that Beaks was speechless. He hadn’t expected the young boy to be so blatant with his refusal. Recovering as fast as he could from his shock, the Waddle CEO said:

“Are you sure about that? I’m not suggesting you to be a simple intern, I offer you a real place in my company.”

Huey’s crown only grew deeper. His hands were clenched into fists and with a hard voice he answered:

“I’ll never work for you again Beaks. Never again.”

And after say that, the boy turned and stormed away. Beaks watched him go, the mask he’d worn so far fell and revealed how furious he really was. He looked after the duckling with narrowed eyes and when he disappeared from view, he said in a sinister voice:

"We'll see that, Huey.”


	2. A fascinating discovery

Huey stomped angrily through Duckburg streets, his hands clenched into trembling fists. What other response was Beaks expecting to get?

_“Hey, there’s something I wanted to talk with you. Would you want to work for Waddle?”_

Did he really thought that he’d work for him?

_“I’m not suggesting you to be just a simple intern, I offer you a real place in my company.”_

No way! He wouldn’t do that! Having Beaks making that offer to him just meant that all he said about being sorry for what happened and praising him for his work was a lie, a trap to convince him that he wasn't as bad as Huey thought and that he deserved a second chance.

Well, Huey hadn’t been stupid enough to fall for it. Beaks wouldn’t get anything from him. Since the red-dressed duckling realized that Waddle’s CEO was actually a faker, he’d lost all the respect and admiration he felt for him. His life would be much better if their paths never crossed again.

Huey sighed, that afternoon he had nearly died, and all because Mark Beaks appeared in Waddleduck’s suit and, perhaps not intentionally, made the suit overload. What Huey couldn’t understand from that moment, was how everyone believed that Beaks was actually Waddleduck. Seriously, how could no one notice that his beak shape and feather color were completely different from the original? Even their voices were different. Not to mention that Gizmoduck had saved Beaks’ life, they couldn’t be the same person. It was absurd!

Sometimes Huey had the impression the he was the only one who noticed the most obvious things… suddenly, and without understanding exactly why, his thoughts turned to the duck that appeared near the water after Gizmoduck sacrificed himself to save them all. Huey vaguely remembered seeing how that duck was dragged out of the Waddle building just before Beaks appeared dressed in the suit. And not only that, but the duck warned that Beaks had put them all in danger.

How did that duck know anything about the suit? Thinking more about it, it didn’t take Huey much time to conclude that that duck was actually the secret identity of GizmoDuck. It was the only explanation. He knew that if Beaks overloaded the suit processor, it’d explode. And that was something that only someone who knew the suit well and had actually worn it could know.

The red-dressed triplet wanted to kick himself. How could it take him so long for him to connect the dots? The duck that was rushed to the hospital had been soaked and badly injured, and that was because he’s GizmoDuck. He’d taken the nucleus that was about to explode, and contrary to what Huey believed, he’d survived the explosion. The real GizmoDuck was alive! And now he knew his secret identity!

The joy of his discovery made all the anger he felt fade away. Now all he wanted to do was to see that duck, and personally thank him for saving his life, again. But, how to find him? What did he know about him? He’d heard the police officer call him Fenton, so that must be his name. What else? Thinking that GizmoDuck came from Gyro’s lab, maybe… maybe the scientist who worked for his great-uncle knew Fenton, and hopefully, he’d tell him in which hospital he’d been taken to.

This last thought urged him to changed routes. He will make a quick visit to Gyro before returning to the mansion. He wanted to learn everything he could about Fenton, and Gyro Gearloose was the only one who could help him.

* * *

Huey came running to his great-uncle money bin. Once there, he immediately went to the elevator, ready to go down to Gyro’s lab. But he needn’t to do that because when the elevator doors opened, they reveled Gyro himself. What a stroke of luck for Huey.

Smiling broadly, Huey began to say:

“Dr. Gearloose I wanted to ask-”

Gyro brushed last him, cutting off what he was going to say. The scientist spoke quickly:

“I don’t have time now kid, I’ve to go to the hospital.”

Huey followed Gyro and asked:

“To see Fenton?”

Gyro stopped dead in his tracks when he heard what the red-dressed duckling had said. Turning to look him in the eye, he asked in a slightly annoyed voice:

“How do you know that?”

Huey shrugged and answered sincerely:

“Lucky guess. I know he was taken to the hospital and Dr. Gearloose I just wanted to ask you about him, to find out what hospital he was taken to… can I go with you to see him?”

Gyro’s eyes narrowed, and Huey was sure that the scientist was… upset that someone had asked him such a question. When the scientist managed to regain the ability to speak, he replied:

“What? Of course-”

“Really??” Huey exclaimed.

“NO.”

Huey’s smile faltered, he really wished he could talk with Fenton. He had to convince Gyro to let him accompany him.

“Oh please Dr. Gearloose, I’ve got to talk with him.” said the duckling in a pleading voice, clasping his hands together.

The scientist closed his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Why was this kid so interested in a simple intern? An intern who was actually fired, but that didn’t matter right now. He’d have to get the idea out of the boy’s head.

Opening his eyes, Gyro told him:

"Are you aware that he is badly injured and that it’ll take several hours to him to wake up?"

Huey shook his head. It was true that when the medics took him, he looked pretty bad, but that didn’t matter. He wanted to see Fenton, and although he wasn’t awake. Huey wanted to thank him. Also, if he knew what hospital was Fenton in, he could visit him again whenever he wanted.

Suddenly, Huey smiled suspiciously, and asked:

"Then why are you going to see him?"

This time it was the scientist's turn to be defensive. Why did that child ask him that question? What did he expect to gain from that? Thinking about an answer that might sound convincing, Gyro replied:

“He’s my intern, is the least I can do. What is your excuse?”

Huey felt trapped. What could he answer to that? Should he tell to the scientist that he knew that Fenton was GizmoDuck? No, he probably wouldn’t like that. But then, what had he to answer? Feeling unsure about what to say, the duckling said:

“To… thank… him?”

 _Dang it_ , that had sounded like the worst told lie in history. Why did he have to stutter like that?

Gyro looked at him suspiciously. It was clear that he didn’t believed him, but instead of manifesting it, the scientist asked:

"And why would you have to thank him?"

Huey didn’t know what to do. He knew- he was very conscious that he was a lousy liar. Of the three brothers, Donald always came to him when he wanted answers because he knew Huey couldn’t fool him, and he’d already tried several times, but always ended in disaster. He was unable to lie. Aware of this, he decided to take the path of honesty with Gyro. Sighing, he said:

“Okay, I know that he’s Gizmoduck, I just wanted to thank him for saving my life.”

Gyro's eyes widened in shock upon hearing that. Surely, he was wondering how he’d been able to find out, Huey saw him open and close his beak very several times, looking for the best way to express whatever he wanted to say. When Gyro finally got to talk, he did it by saying:

“How did you…? He told it to you, didn’t he? I’ll kill him!”

 _Oh, oh_ , he’d just put Fenton trouble, and the poor intern had done nothing. Huey almost went into a panic. He’d have to convince Gyro that this wasn’t Fenton’s fault. So, jumping forward, the duck with red cap grabbed the scientist by the arm and quickly said:

“No, he didn’t tell me anything! It’s been me; I figured it out.”

Huey didn’t know if it had been his words or the expression with which he looked at Gyro, but if it was one or the other, the scientist seemed to calm down and with a much calmer voice than before he spoke again:

“So, you’ve deducted it, huh? Arg, fine, get in the car, but not a word until we get there, understood?”

Huey grinned. He made it! He’d get to see the hero hidden under GizmoDuck’s mask! Happy that his dream was about to be fulfilled, he exclaimed:

“Understood!”

And with that said he quickly got into Gyro’s car.

The trip to the hospital was quiet, very quiet, because true to his word, Huey didn’t say a single word. In fact, the red-dressed duckling noticed how Gyro looked at him from time to time, probably waiting for the boy to say something. But Huey was an honest duck, and if he promised to not say anything, he will do it.

Upon arriving at his destination, the scientist stopped the car and immediately got out, with Huey following closely behind. After entering to the building, Gyro asked for Fenton’s room location. After receiving it, they quickly headed there. Huey didn’t separate a single moment from the scientist, because he feared that with how fast Gyro was going, he’d lose him if he wasn’t close to him at all times.

When Gyro finally stopped, he did it in front of two large doors. Unsure about why the scientist had stopped, Huey looked at Gyro and Gyro looked at him, but not in an angry way, but rather… disappointed. Maybe even sad? Huey didn’t understand anything until Gyro told him:

“This is the end of the road for you, boy.”

Huey felt as if his soul fell to the ground. What did he mean by the end of the road? Looking stupefied at the scientist, the duckling could barely babble:

"W-what?" 

Gyro sighed, he seemed tired and it really seemed that he didn’t want to disappoint the boy, but he had to tell him, so he explained:

“Fenton is in the other side of those doors, but in this hospital’s part, children aren’t allowed to enter.”

So it was that. A rule was what prevented him from seeing Fenton?

“What? Couldn’t they make an exception?” he asked pleadingly.

Gyro shocked his head and answered:

“I’m afraid not, kid.”

Stupid hospital rules, Huey liked rules and he’d always followed them, but that rule was unfair, why couldn’t he go and see someone who was injured and would probably appreciate having company? Banned for being a child? They had no right to do that… did they? Huey felt his eyes get wet. He really wanted to see Fenton, and if it was possible, talk to him, but it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen.

“But I-” the young duck started to say, but Gyro cut him off, saying:

“Look, I can do something if you want, in the improbably case that Fenton is awake, I’ll tell him that you came to visit him and that they didn’t let you get in.”

Huey looked away, he didn’t like that Gyro had to be a delivery courier just because he couldn’t get in, but he really didn’t have any other options.

The scientist, seeing that the duckling wasn’t entirely satisfied, added:

“And when they take him out of ICU, I’ll… tell you which room he was taken to. Are you good with that?”

Huey sniffed, trying to avoid shedding tears in front of Gyro. When he managed to control himself enough, he said:

"... yes, I suppose... thank you very much for everything Dr. Gearloose."

The red-dressed duckling smiled after these words, trying to convey to the scientist that what he said was sincerely said. After all, it wasn’t Gyro's fault that he wasn’t allowed entry. Moreover, he was doing everything possible to help him.

Gyro nodded in recognition of Huey's words and dismissed him saying: 

“You’re welcome kid, now go home.”

Huey nodded and left the place with his arms crossed. That whole trip had been in vain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so... like I did whe I published this story in Spanish, I'll try to update every week, and I've decided to update on Saturdays. (I know last week I updated on Sunday, but I'd like to do it on Saturday, that's why this chapter comes today and not tomorrow).
> 
> That said, I'd like to thank all the people who left kudos in this story and I'd specially thank to DrummerGirl231 for her wonderful review. Thank you, I really appreciate it!
> 
> Welp, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I've to say that action will take still a little to arrive, so be patient please. If you liked this chapter, please do not doubt to let a review. Reviews are always welcome.
> 
> Pilyarquitect


	3. GizmoDuck is definitely a hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well people, since today begins airing season 3, I decided to update this story wtih TWO chapters instead of one. Yes! you're read right, there'll be one chapter more after this one, enjoy it!

Louie was bored. A while ago he had WaddleDuck serving him... until he had to leave to answer another call. The duckling dressed in green was sitting on the couch, mindlessly changing channels until suddenly something—or someone—caught his attention.

It was his older brother, who seemed to be protesting WaddleDuck in front of Waddle's headquarters. Why would his older brother do something like that? If the day before he had come home super-excited because there was a new superhero in the city. Why was such a radical change?

Louie immediately felt interested in what was happening. The screen panned out to reveal his brother in a crowd of people. The camera moved up, focusing on WaddleDuck who was coming down from the top of the Waddle building, great! It seemed like he was going to make some speech or something. That gave Louie an idea, what if he called WaddleDuck in the middle of his speech? That could be fun.

The duckling dressed in green was about to press the button when WaddleDuck lifted his mask and revealed himself to be...

“Mark Beaks!?” Louie exclaimed. “He’s WaddleDuck? It can’t be!”

“What can’t it be Louie?” Dewey suddenly asked from behind the younger brother.

Louie jumped slightly. He didn’t realize that Dewey was watching television behind him. Hiding his surprise the best he could, he focused on explaining what he was watching on television:

“What it can’t be, Dewford, is Mark Beaks being WaddleDuck. And apparently, our dear brother Hubert doesn’t believe either. Look.”

And it was true, in those moments, Huey was arguing why it was impossible for Beaks and WaddleDuck to be the same guy. Or so he did until a reporter pushed him away to interview to Beaks instead. The two brothers watched as Waddle's CEO answer the questions before breaking out in a dance… quite pathetically, in Louie's opinion.

The unfortunate thing was that, during his dancing, several functions of the suit that Beaks was wearing were activated and multiple lasers shot in different directions. One of the lasers hit the poster that Huey was holding, making his brother stare in terror at Waddle's CEO. Then Dewey and Louie saw the logical people reaction, which was to run out of there. They saw that their older brother was also trying to get away, but unfortunately the duckling stumbled and fell to the ground.

“No Huey run!!” They shouted in unison, seeing the terrible danger that threatened their older brother.

Both ducklings sighed in relief when another person, a police officer, took their brother away just in time so he wouldn't get shot.

But Dewey and Louie's tranquility were short-lived, because soon after, a rocket shot out of the suit and hit the base of the screen behind Beaks, which caused it to fall...

"Oh no! Huey is gonna die crushed!”

The two brothers looked to their right and saw Webby watching with them. When had she arrived? How hadn’t they heard her arrive? Well that was something they would ask later. Now the important thing was what was about to happen to their brother.

Looking again at the screen, Louie was surprised when he saw that the large structure Huey was standing on suddenly rising. Wait what—? The falling screen was thrown at Waddle's facade and it was revealed GizmoDuck who had saved them. Beaks, the police officer and his brother seemed unharmed, and all thanks to the real hero, GizmoDuck.

Knowing that his brother was safe made Louie, Dewey, and Webby, jump with joy on the couch. Ironically, Louie realized that his brother was running happily around GizmoDuck, as if he no longer wanted the superhero to leave. He’d have to ask Huey what had happened when he returned to the mansion. 

In their euphoria, the three ducklings were surprised that Huey suddenly climbed onto GizmoDuck's shoulders. They saw that they were talking, although they couldn’t hear what they were saying. Huey suddenly hit the robotic superhero's helmet.

“But what is our brother doing now?” Wondered Dewey, with a confused expression in his face.

Louie looked to his brother and asked, slightly irritated: 

“How do you expect me to know that?”

Dewey also looked away from the TV, and it seemed that he was going to say something, but Webby interrupted him by saying:

"Looks like Huey is rewiring the suit, look."

The two brothers focused their attention on the screen saw that Webby was right. Arching an eyebrow, Dewey spoke again asking:

“Why would he do that?”

Seriously, was it so hard for his brother to see that Louie knew as little of the situation as he did? What did he expect him to answer? This time without bothering to look at his brother, the triplet dressed in green snapped:

“I don’t know Dewford! The only one who can answer this question is Huey, and he isn’t here, he's there.”

The three ducklings saw then that Huey connected two cables and just after doing it, an electric shock jolted his body and made him literally jump him through the air, landing in the arms of the police officer who had saved him a while earlier.

Seeing how their brother and friend was electrocuted caused a sympathetic groan of pain from them. Even Louie said:

“Ouch, that had to hurt.”

Dewey winced and nodded:

"Totally agree.”

"What had to hurt?" A voice suddenly rang out behind them.

The three kids turned around, surprised shouting at the same time:

“Uncle Scrooge!”

The old duck ignored their reactions and focusing his attention on the screen. He suddenly asked:

“Is that...?”

The kids looked at the TV again and with a smile, Dewey answered:

“Yes, it’s GizmoDuck, but, where is he going?”

And he asked that because they saw how the robotic superhero suddenly took off and flew away with a flickering bulb in his hands.

Scrooge shook his head. Although the children didn’t notice it, all they noticed was that their great-uncle sighed and said:

"No, I didn't mean Gizmoduck, I meant your brother, what is he doing there?"

The children looked at each other, shrugging. Louie smiled guilty and replied:

"We don’t know, exactly.”

Scrooge narrowed his eyes and said:

“Then tell me exactly what do ye know.”

Louie, being the one who had seen more of what had happened, opened his mouth to respond, but he slammed it shut when a thud startled him. Turning quickly, he saw what appeared to be an explosion taking place where Gizmoduck had flown away.

The viewers saw that Huey and the police officer were leaning against the railing of the port watching the large cloud that was generated after the outbreak.

Completely stunned by what had just happened, Dewey asked:

"Gizmoduck exploded?"

Webby looked sad. Looking at the middle triplet, she said softly:

"He sacrificed himself to save the people there. He has saved them."

It wasn’t long before Huey appeared on the screen explaining the sacrifice that Gizmoduck had just made for the city. Well, he did so until the same journalist who so rudely pushed him away earlier appeared, claiming the microphone that belonged to her. She took her position in front of the camera.

Huey guiltily returned the woman's belongings, and then they saw him pointing down toward the water.

Wondering what Huey could have seen, the two brothers, with Webby and Scrooge, watched silently until they saw that the medics pulled a soaked and unconscious duck from sea and placed him on a stretcher to carry him away. The police officer was all the time next to that duck. Apparently, she knew him. Maybe they were family or something. Louie could see that his immediate older brother sighed with relief at his side. Did he know that duck too? He would have to ask him later.

After those last images, the connection was finally cut, and Scrooge took his mobile phone and turned away:

“Lads I’ve got an important call. Please, tell Huey to come see me when he comes back.”

“Yes, uncle Scrooge.” answered the ducklings. They exchanged worried looks, because it was unusual for Huey to get into trouble.

* * *

The triplet dressed in red took a very long time to come back. Seriously, it seemed that he was never going to come through the door. When he finally did, his face reflected disappointment and sadness. What had happened to him? Was he like this because of Gizmoduck? Probably. Huey considered him his new idol after all. All of them were aware of that. And even more, he was the one who was there, seeing how the robotic superhero sacrificed himself for them. It must have been a very hard blow for the older brother.

Seeing him in that state, the other children felt some apprehension to tell Huey that his great-uncle wanted to talk to him. But on the other hand, the children didn’t want to risk suffering the wrath of the older duck for disobeying him. So, Louie took a deep breath and said to his brother:

"Hey Huey, Uncle Scrooge wants to talk to you."

The older triplet looked at his brother, and Louie could tell that he seemed to have been crying. Had Gizmoduck’s death affected him so much?

Louie was about to ask his brother if he was okay, but the older triplet came forward asking instead:

"Oh really? Where is he?"

Louie remained silent for a few seconds, trying to process what Huey had asked. When the green-dressed triplet finally managed to recover his speech to respond, he answered:

"I think in his study.”

The older triplet looked away and nodded in response:

"Okay, I'm going."

Then the three ducklings saw him walking up the stairs to his great-uncle’s studio. Looking at each other, they decided to follow him in silence and, if they could, they would listen to the conversation the young duck was about to have with Scrooge.

When they reached the hall where their uncle's studio was, they saw that Huey was in front of the ajar door. The young duckling took a deep breath and knocked.

 _"Enter,”_ was heard from the inside. The triplet dressed in red opened the door further and entered, once inside, the other ducklings came running. If the door was left open, they could hear. Unfortunately, Scrooge spoke again and said:

"Close the door Huey.”

Oh no, now they couldn't hear anything now, because everyone knew that their great-uncle's office was soundproof, preventing any noise from being heard from outside. The ventilation ducts weren't an option either. Since Scrooge discovered Webby's ability to move through them, the rich duck had prevented access to his office by them. A very skillful tactic to keep his privacy and/or secrets.

The two brothers and Webby, seeing that there was nothing they could do, resigned themselves to waiting for the older triplet to finish speaking with their uncle.

A while passed and when the door finally opened, the first thing they saw was that Huey's attitude was now radiant. Seriously, he seemed as if nothing bad had happened at all.

Scrooge came out right behind him, and he didn't seem angry or furious either, but he also seemed happy. What had happened in there? Looking at each other in bewilderment, Dewey came forward and, putting a hand on his older brother's shoulder, asked:

"What have you talked about?"

Huey and Uncle Scrooge looked at each other. Both smiled and then Huey replied:

"What happens in the study, stays in the study.”

And after these words the two walked quietly down the hall, leaving the others speechless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp here's the first of today's updatings, soon will come the second chapter too I hope you all will enjoy it. I want to thank to all the people who read this story and aldo left kudos. Thank you very much, and I also want to thank to DrummerGirl231 and andypng for their reviews, thank you very much!!  
> Well all of you will soon see chapter 4 too!!! I hope you'll enjoy it!


	4. I’ll never fail you again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And as I promised, here you have chapter 4, I hope you'll like it!

Fenton was in pain, it seemed that there wasn’t a single part of his body that wasn’t screaming in pain. What had happened? Oh yes, the explosion, it was luck that he was self-ejected just before the artificial processor exploded. If he hadn’t, the explosion would have killed him.

But everything else hadn’t been so lucky. Despite not receiving the direct impact of the explosion, the shock wave was enough to make him collide on the water’s surface. He bounced across it several times like a skipping stone before he finally fell and sank under the sea. Any other duck might’ve been carried away by the current or would have given up. But Fenton wasn’t going to give up. He had to get to the shore. He couldn’t leave his mother alone.

Swimming as hard as he could with the pain, the Hispanic duck managed to reach the pier and laboriously climb the ladder. Once he managed to reach the platform, his strength failed him and he collapsed. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was one of the reporters and the boy who had helped him take control of the suit.

Slowly, Fenton's eyelids parted, and a hospital room appeared before his eyes. Looking to his right, the duck saw that his mother was there, asleep next to him. How long had he been in that position? In a raspy voice, indicating that he hadn’t used his vocal cords for quite some time, the Hispanic duck spoke:

“¿Mamá?”

Instantly his mom woke up and straightened, when she looked at him, her face alighted with radiant joy. She excitedly exclaimed:

“¡Pollito!”

Fenton looked forward again, while his mother rose from the chair, and said:

"I think I was fired,”

And after a few moments of silence added:

"I was definitely fired.”

His mom kissed his head and softly told:

“Just rest right now. Someone sprung for the best VIP hospital suite.”

A sudden voice joined the conversation saying:

"Need a word with you.”

Mother and son looked towards the door and there they saw the richest duck in the world. Imposing, leaning on his cane as usual. Fenton saw him and spoke surprised:

"Mr. McDuck?”

His mother sounded more excited when she said:

“Scrooge McDuck? Oh, I’ll leave you alone.”

And picking up her belongings she walked towards the door. Scrooge took off his hat to say goodbye, but the woman turned to her son and whispered:

"See if you get money out of it, he's loaded.”

Those words provoked a disapproving look on Scrooge's face, although the woman didn't notice. Fenton smiled apologetically, not knowing what to say after what his mother had just done.

Scrooge suddenly returned to his serious expression and walked towards the window of the room, saying:

“You know, I spend a lot of time abroad I won't always be here for Duckburg…”

Then he turned to Fenton and picking an eye, said:

“I need someone to make sure this place is still standing when I get back.”

Unsure what he could be hinting at, Fenton stared at him question ally. Scrooge seemed to understand his bewilderment, because suddenly he turned to the door and shouted:

"Gyro!"

The scientist entered with a canvas bag in his hands. Dropping it on the ground he opened it and took out the helmet of Gizmoduck's suit, saying:

"Mr. McDuck is very impressed by my hero armor and he feels that despite literally every conceivable piece of evidence to the contrary, you are the best person to test the new model.”

He put the helmet on the bed and added:

"The armor is self-contained using your brain as the core processor, arg, go ahead.”

Fenton looked at the helmet and then he said the words that activated the armor:

“Blathering Blatherskite.”

Instantly the helmet flew over his head, making him laugh with happiness, the rest of the armor's pieces were also placed in place, which caused Fenton to exclaim:

"I think I need a new plaster.”

When he finished his transformation, Fenton stood up and looked at Scrooge and Gyro with a radiant smile on his face. Scrooge nodded and said:

"Looking good lad, you work for me now, I just need a name to write in the paychecks."

While smiling, the Hispanic duck answered the question by saying:

"Call me Gizmoduck!"

Another nod from the main duck before he responded:

"It's good that it's Gizmoduck."

Gyro closed his eyes and shook his head. Fenton knew that the scientist disliked that name, but what could Fenton do? It was the first name that came to his mind and so it stuck, apart from the fact that he did like that name.

Gyro opened his eyes again and spoke:

“Anyway, I'm leaving. I’ve a lot of work to do, and don't forget that even if you now work for Mr. McDuck, you're still my intern. I want to see you in the lab as fast as you’ve the medical discharge, understand?”

Fenton swallowed nervously and replied:

"Yes Dr. Gearloose.”

With that said, Gyro left. Fenton saw him leave, and when Scrooge and himself were alone, Fenton sighed. There was something he’d to say to his new boss, so, in a serious voice, the Hispanic duck spoke again:

"Thank you very much Mr. McDuck, but I must be honest, none of this would have been possible without someone's help."

Scrooge raised an eyebrow and spoke, although his voice seemed more curious than angry:

"Oh yeah? Whose?"

Fenton fiddled with his thumbs and replied honestly:

“A boy of about ten years old with a red shirt and a red cap over his head.”

Scrooge grinned. Why did he seem happy with that news? Was there something Fenton had missed? Scrooge asked then, with a hint of fun in his voice:

"And what makes you think that without him ye wouldn't have achieved it, lad?"

Fenton sighed, lowered his arms on both sides of his body and explained:

"It was him who came up with the idea of using my brain as the central processor."

Scrooge nodded and simply said:

"I see, I like your honesty."

Then he looked back at the door and called:

"Ye can come in now.”

Fenton looked over in surprise and then he saw him. The same duckling he’d been talking about. He was standing at the doorway hesitantly, unsure of whether he should come in.

As soon as he recognized him, Fenton turned his body completely to face the boy and exclaimed:

"It's you!"

The boy took a deep breath before venturing into the room. He said:

"Hi, Fenton... I mean GizmoDuck, I'm Huey."

Scrooge moved to stand beside the duckling and placed a hand on his shoulder. He told Fenton:

"GizmoDuck, I introduce you to my grand-nephew Hubert Duck.”

Fenton stared at them both, the boy... Huey, had called him by his name, did he know his secret identity? How? Who told him? Looking at the rich duck beside him, Fenton asked:

"Did you tell him who I am?"

Before Scrooge could respond, Huey came forward and spoke quickly:

“No, I figured it out on my own, but I promise to keep the secret. Junior Woodchuck word.”

Scrooge then explaining:

"Huey insisted on coming to thank you for saving his life."

That said, the older duck replaced his top hat and said goodbye:

"Well, I leave ye alone, I think ye’ve things to talk about.”

Scrooge left the room closing the door behind him. After this, the two ducks were left alone. Fenton encouraged Huey to sit in the chair beside his hospital bed. Once this was done, Fenton scratched the back of his neck nervously and asked:

"So... you wanted to thank me? Why?"

Huey smiled kindly and responded:

"For saving my life! And for saving everyone's life there in Waddle."

Seriously? Was that what he wanted to thank him for? If Fenton considered everything that happened that day as a failure. If he hadn’t agreed to work for Beaks, there would’ve been no disaster to begin with. And, in fact, if they had managed to get out of it alive, it wasn’t thanks to Fenton, but precisely thanks to the duckling that was now sitting in front of him.

Sighing, Fenton closed his eyes and replied:

"But I... I don't deserve that thanks, really. It's me who should thank you, Huey.”

Huey looked at him with the widest eyes Fenton had ever seen and said:

"Thank me? But I didn’t do anything.”

Fenton giggled and responded:

"Nothing? You were the first person who truly believed that I could be a hero! Not to mention how you were able to connect the suit to my brain.”

Huey smiled slightly at the mention of the last part, and responded:

“Yes, I’ve a small and painful memory of that moment.”

Fenton’s eyes widened in horror. He had forgotten that the boy had been electrocuted when he rewired the suit. In a slightly anguished voice, the older duck asked:

"Are you okay?"

The duckling hurried to answer:

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, it was nothing too bad."

He offered the Hispanic duck a sincere smile. Fenton in turn also smiled. That boy was too kind to him. Looking away at his hands, the older duck said:

"Let's make a deal, I accept your thanks if you accept mine, okay?"

Huey's smile widened and replied:

"We have an agreement!"

And after this he threw himself on Fenton to give him a hug. Fenton was surprised by the sudden action. The rapid movement made him groan in pain, because at that moment he remembered that despite wearing the suit he still had several parts of his body seriously damaged.

Huey immediately pulled away, fearing that he’d been responsible for harming Fenton, although the other duck assured him that it wasn’t his fault.

With Huey's help, Fenton took off GizmoDuck's suit and put it back in the bag. As the adult duck had anticipated, he now needed another plaster. While he was calling someone from the hospital staff, he asked Huey to hide the bag in the closet. He didn't want anyone else to know that he was GizmoDuck.

The duckling immediately did what Fenton had asked for and when he finished, he checked the time on his phone and announced that he had to leave. But before doing so, he asked Fenton if he could visit him again. The Hispanic duck smiled broadly and assured the duckling that he could come whenever he wanted. This brought a smile to the little duck and promised that he would visit again soon.

Fenton was left alone again until a nurse arrived who, seeing Fenton’s state, screamed in horror and called for more staff to help replace the broken plaster of the badly injured duck.

When the nurse asked how that had happened, Fenton simply replied that he tried to move and ended up falling out of bed, which caused a good part of the immobilizations he was carrying ended broken.

Fortunately, hospital staff seemed to buy his excuse, so no one in that environment would know how the plaster actually. His secret was safe.

Several days passed and Fenton recovered quickly. Huey came to see him whenever he had time. The duckling was very considerate and affectionate in that sense, always trying to bring the adult duck things to entertain himself; or telling stories of his adventures or ideas of how to improve the suit...

Actually, that boy had very good ideas. Maybe it’d be good if Huey could present those ideas to Dr. Gearloose. Surely, they'd be good implementations for his suit. But in addition to all those ideas, Fenton was mostly pleased with Huey’s kindness and generosity. Of all the times he came to visit him, not once did Huey do anything of his own interest. He always tried to satisfy him as much as he could. To Fenton, it was a truly admirable character trait, and Fenton secretly increasingly felt that the real hero was Huey, and not him.

When he was finally discharged from the hospital, Fenton actually felt a little sad. He’d become accustomed to Huey's almost daily visits, and now he couldn’t enjoy the company of the duckling anymore. Unless he came to see him at the laboratory, but that would be a different environment. They would no longer have the chance to speak in the same way as they did in the hospital. But on the other hand, being finally out of that building, allowed him to start his hero duties as GizmoDuck. He was willing to do the best he could. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone, especially, not the first person who believed in him.

When he went out into the street, with the canvas bag hanging over his shoulder, he breathed the outside air for the first time in several days. Fenton felt strengthened. He’d missed walking down the street. Suddenly, a car with some Beagle Boys passed in front of him, the police got in pursuit. That made him smile. It was time to start his new job. Moving behind a corner, the Hispanic duck left the bag on the ground and shouted:

"Blathering Blatherskite!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is all for this week, I hope you liked both chapters. If so, please don't doubt on share your thoughts.
> 
> Just one thing more, this translation wouldn't be as good as it is without EmPro8's help. I'm really, really thankful to her!!!


	5. Separated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll never thank Empro-8 enough for her help on making this tranlation better than it could be. Enjoy the chapter ;)

It had been several weeks since the incident at Waddle. The superhero had survived, much to everyone's surprise. The situation in the city seemed to have normalized again, and the crime rate had dropped, no need to name thanks to whom.

Today was Saturday, and Webby was very excited, it had been a long time since Lena with the triplets and she had gone out to play together. Surely, they were going to have a great time! The girl dressed in pink was so excited that she couldn't stop jumping all over the mansion, she wanted her teenage friend would arrive soon so they could leave immediately.

When the doorbell finally rang, Webby was at the door in five seconds flat. On the other side was Lena, with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Lena! I'm glad you finally arrived!”

Lena greeted her friend and in a confident voice, saying:

"You think I was going to miss the chance to see you and mess with your friends, Pinky?"

Webby knew that Lena didn't mean that. The triplets were her friends, Lena was her friend, so they were all friends, weren’t they? Lena was just kidding about messing with the three brothers, sure.

"Hahaha, you're very funny Lena, I'm sure we'll have a great time all together.” the young girl said to her teenage friend, but Lena simply shrugged and said:

"If you say so,”

At that moment Huey, Dewey and Louie came down the stairs, and Dewey said:

"Come on Lena, Webby is right, we’ll have a good time."

At those words, Lena crossed her arms looking haughtily at the triplets. She said sarcastically:

"Oh look, it's Bluey and his brothers."

Webby saw that the triplets frowned at her greeting. Okay, maybe Lena's jokes were sometimes... a bit ruthless, but nothing that couldn't be forgiven, right?

Webby was about to speak, but Huey came forward saying:

"Lena, please don't start."

Lena changed her attention from Dewey to Huey and in a cheerful voice said:

“Calm down Red, it was just a joke. Okay, are we leaving or not?”

Webby saw that Huey looked like he was going to say something else, and knowing that he had inherited the McDuck temperament, she feared that this conversation would turn into an argument if they didn't stop him.

Fortunately, Webby wasn’t the only one who realized that, and she was glad when Louie put his arm around his elder brother's shoulders to silence him and spoke before Huey could, saying:

"Yeah, come on.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Webby saw Huey cast an annoyed look at his brother, but fortunately did nothing else. Resigning, he also set off to the park.

When they reached the park’s playground, the two girls immediately went to the seesaw, while Dewey climbed the bars, practicing all possible ways to cross from one side to other without falling.

Louie chose to sit on the swing and rock gently while scrolling at his phone. Meanwhile, Huey was content to simply sit on a bench and read his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook calmly.

Time passed and Webby suddenly realized that there were fewer and fewer people in the park. That was strange, it was a Saturday afternoon, and usually at this time there were always many more people. But today the park was practically empty. Where was everybody?

Without warning, Webby jumped off the seesaw, something she regretted when she heard Lena's scream of surprise followed by a thump and a growl. _Ooops_... maybe she should have warned her that she was going to do that. Huey looked up from his book to see what had happened, but Webby wasn’t for that. She had to make sure for herself that Lena was fine. So, turning to her friend, Webby acquired a guilt expression while saying:

"Sorry Lena."

Lena sat up, rubbing her backside. She looked at her friend sympathetically and said:

"No, don’t worry Webby, I’m not hurt. just let me know next time if you get tired of the seesaw.”

Webby quickly raised her hands and replied:

"Oh no! That’s not that, I didn’t get tired.”

This surprised Lena, who instantly raised an eyebrow and looked at Webby confused and then asked:

"Then why did you jump off?"

Webby looked around the empty playground suspiciously, saying:

"It's weird."

Of course, that answer didn’t satisfy Lena. She crossed her arms asked again:

"What’s weird?"

Webby put on a serious expression and answered:

"That there is almost no one in the park... in fact, I think we are the only five left."

Huey, with his guidebook still in his hands, then approached the two girls. Apparently, he’d been aware of the conversation they had, and at this point, decided to join the dialogue saying:

"You are absolutely right Webby; this is very weird."

"What is weird Huey?" Dewey asked as he jumped off the bars he’d been playing on. Huey opened his beak to answer his brother, but before he could do so, Louie approached the other ducklings looking around while speaking:

"Hey guys, it’s just me or are we the only ones in the park?"

Huey changed the focus from one brother to the other, and with a slight tone of concern in his voice answered his brother's question:

"That is precisely what we were just saying Louie," and then he added more for himself than for the rest:

"I don’t like this at all."

Webby was about to suggest that maybe they should get out of there when a strange noise caught her attention. Looking towards the noise’s source, she saw an approaching can rolling directly towards them. Was that…?

_Oh no!_

"Look out!" The young girl shouted urgently.

Instantly, the can exploded and from inside it came a white smoke that quickly enveloped the five ducklings, making them cough. Louie immediately panicked and in a voice several octaves higher than natural, shouted hysterically:

"What was that?!"

Webby grab bed him by the arm, trying to push him away from the smoke. She also pushed the others, urging them to run. While doing this between coughs, the pink-dressed girl answered the question of the youngest triplet saying in an alarmed voice:

“A smoke bomb! We’ve to get out of here! Run, and try not to breathe!”

The five ducklings started running, but it was too late. Webby watched in horror as one by one the three brothers fell on the grass. Looking to her right, she saw that her best friend had also lost consciousness. Only Webby was left, but unfortunately, she felt weak, and she knew it was only a matter of seconds before she also fell asleep. Finally, she fell to the ground, because of the position in which she’d fallen, in her vision's field she could see the triplets laying relatively far from each other.

Suddenly the girl heard footsteps approaching, and almost instantly, legs that appeared to be from a hawk came in fading line of sight. Whoever owned those legs walked next to Dewey, beyond Louie and stopped next to… Huey? What did that person want from Huey? Webby tried to move, but her limbs refused to respond. All she could do was watch helplessly as the mysterious figure crouched next to the triplet dressed in red and picked him up. That person seemed to be very large and muscular, because the duckling seemed about baby’s size in his kidnapper’s arms.

After snatching the older triplet, Huey disappeared from Webby's view. Whoever was carrying him turned and started walking to leave, but stopped momentarily in front of her and said:

“Wow, are you still awake? You're stronger than I thought, but it doesn’t matter, you can't stop me from taking this duckling.”

And no matter how angry she was, Webby knew he was right. She couldn't do anything to prevent Huey from being kidnapped. Feeling that she’d failed miserably, Webby finally fell into the misfortune of unconsciousness.

* * *

Webby didn't know how much time had passed before waking up again, but when she did, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer in the park. No, she was in her bed, in the mansion. How had she got there? Webby groaned, and slowly sat up. The young girl tried to remember what had happened. But all that came to her mind was the image of a stranger grabbing Huey. _Oh no!_ Huey had been kidnapped!

Webby instantly stop up, then staggered, still unstable on her feet. But she soon recovered and it was at that moment that she noticed Lena, who was sleeping in the extra bed in which she settled whenever she stayed overnight at the mansion.

Trying to not wake her up, Webby snuck past quickly. She left her room to go down the stairs immediately. She had to talk to someone, had to tell whoever was awake what she knew. When she arrived on the main level, Webby saw Donald in the living room. _Great_ , someone to talk to. The young girl started towards the sailor-dressed duck, but stopped when she saw Donald's face.

He seemed... crumbled, Webby had never seen her friends' uncle look so sad. At that moment the girl realized that the adult duck had something in his hands. Huey’s Junior Woodchuck Guidebook. _Oh my_ , Donald already knew about Huey. At that moment, Dewey and Louie appeared accompanied by Scrooge from the kitchen. None of them had noticed her presence yet.

They sat around Donald, probably to try to comfort him, but how do you comfort someone who’d just lost a loved one in mysterious circumstances?

Scrooge sat next to Donald and placed a hand on his shoulder. He said:

"Cheer up nephew, ye'll see that we will find him."

Dewey, who had sat on the other side of his uncle, tried to sound optimistic:

"Yeah, cheer up Uncle Donald! Whoever kidnapped Huey probably just wants money, if we pay it, they’ll bring him back.”

From her position, Webby saw that Louie smacked his forehead and in a rather angry voice answered his brother:

"That doesn't help Dewey. Besides, if it was their plan, why didn't they kidnap all of us?"

Donald closed his eyes tightly upon hearing that, no doubt not wanting to imagine what it’d be like to have all three of his boys disappear. Losing one was hard enough.

Dewey’s eyes widened in surprise, not expecting that question at all. He responded by saying:

"... I don't know, maybe, something prevented them from catching everyone and they only had time to catch one of us.”

Scrooge shook his head and responded to the triplet dressed in blue:

"I doubt it very much, lad. As we’re told, someone was pulling people away from the park with the excuse of a bomb threat. It seems like they planned to take only one of ye."

Louie added just after:

"Also, if they want a ransom, why haven't they contacted us yet?"

Dewey raised his hands to silence his great-uncle and his brother and stop them showing him the flaws in his theory. Seeing that ransom was not a viable motive, the middle brother then tried with another theory:

"Okay, fine, then... I guess they just needed one of us and they took Huey because he was closer, it was a coincidence that they took him.”

"It wasn’t a coincidence.” Webby said suddenly.

The family turned to the young girl in surprise, since they didn’t expect her to be there, much less to say something like that.

Scrooge was the first to recover from the surprise and inquisitively asked Webby:

"How do ye know it wasn't a coincidence, lass?"

The girl dressed in pink put her hands behind her back and looking down at the floor, as if she was ashamed, she replied:

"I... was still aware when they took Huey. The person who kidnapped him went straight for him despite being furthest from where he was."

Dewey stood suddenly when he heard that. Facing Webby, ha practically shouted in her face:

“You watched as they took my brother and did nothing to stop it?! How could you let them kidnap him?!”

He seemed about ready to jump on the girl, but Louie got in the way, grabbing his older brother by the shoulders and saying:

"Dewey, calm down! Webby would never allow such a thing if she could avoid it."

Webby knew that Dewey was laying out in pain, but that didn't mean the words he said didn’t really hurt her. With tears in her eyes, the young girl explained:

"I... I tried, but I was too weak I couldn't move.”

Scrooge had also risen, although unlike Dewey he remained calm. He kneeled beside Webby and placed a hand on her shoulder, saying softly:

“I know ye did your best. Just tell me one thing, could ye at least see how it was that took him?”

The young girl shook her head and responded:

"No, I only saw that he had hawk legs. And that he seemed to be quite muscular and that his voice was deep and grave. That’s all I know.”

Dewey who had collapsed in his younger brother's arms suddenly perked up and urgently asked:

"Did you say a hawk?"

The young girl looked surprised and replied:

"Yes, why?"

Dewey was thoughtful. Everyone else looked at him with a mixture of surprise and concern. What happened to the triplet dressed in blue? Speaking for the first time in all that time, Donald approached to his middle-aged nephew and asked:

"What is it Dewey?"

Dewey looked up and replied to his uncle:

"I think... I think I know who has taken Huey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp here I brought you a new chapter, I hope you liked it. Any guesses of who took Huey? I think you all can imagine who it was, can' you? If you liked the episode, please don't forget to leave a review, your thoughts help me to continue writing!
> 
> Okay, tomorrow is Easter, so I wish to all of you a big and great Holiday!!!!
> 
> After saying that, I'd like to thank to all this people who took their time to read this story, the ones who left kudos and the ones who marked the story or subscribed to it. I'd specially thank to DrummerGirl231 for her reviews, I really appreciate every review :D


	6. Awake among enemies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been waiting to publish this chapter since I started to translate the story. This is maybe (if not my favourite) one of my favourite chapters, and for that reason, I’d like to thank @empro-8 for editing it and make it better than it was at the begining. You’re really helping me and I’m so glad for this.
> 
> Now, I really hope that you all will enjoy this chapter ;)

Huey felt dizzy, his head was spinning so much that he felt as if he had just ridden a roller coaster twenty times in a row. What had he been doing before falling asleep?

Suddenly a noise caught his attention, in fact, it was a set of soft strokes, like those of fingers against a touch screen. Was Louie looking for something on his phone? Why was he doing it so close to his bed? Moving, the duckling rolled to his back and slowly opened his eyes. What he saw surprised him. The roof was much farther than usual, which was weird. He slept on the top bunk, and he could almost touch the ceiling just by reaching out. Where was he?!

It was in that moment that he remembered the events that happened before losing consciousness. The discovery of being alone in the park, the smoke bomb, feeling weak, and finally losing consciousness in the grass. Had he been kidnapped?! Where were his brothers? Was Webby and Lena here too? Where is ‘here’, exactly?

Fully awake now, the older triplet sat up suddenly. In doing so, Huey found himself staring at a wall with a huge ‘W’ painted on it. Was he in-?

"Hey, I see you’ve finally woken up." said a voice to his right. Huey was petrified, because he immediately recognized that voice.

Turning slowly, the little duck dressed in red found himself looking into the eyes of Waddle’s CEO.

"Mark?!"

"The one and only,” replied the billionaire parrot. Huey recoiled in disgust. He had really hoped to never see him again.

Beaks, smartphone still in his hand, was observing with a smile which could be considered sinister. Huey frowned. Why had he taken him to Waddle? What did he want from him? And where were the others?

As if he could read his thoughts, he spoke again, saying:

“I guess you’re wondering what you’re doing here… Huey, isn't it? Well before I tell you, let me say that your brothers and friends aren’t here. We're alone.”

Huey couldn't help letting out a relieved sigh and a slight smile. At least the others weren’t prisoners of that crazy bird. They were safe, that was the most important thing for him.

Clearing his throat, the Waddle's CEO caught the young duck's attention and when he made sure the boy was watching him, he said:

“I’ve brought you here so that… you could work for me.”

Huey was instantly furious, was that parrot still going on with that? Couldn't he accept no for an answer? Huey rolled out of the bed in which Mark had laid him down on and once stood, he crossed his arms angrily and said:

"My answer is still NO! I’ll never work for you Beaks." He punctuated the last part by jabbing a finger toward him.

Mark only smiled and shook his head. That surprised the young duck. Did Beaks know something he didn’t? The parrot again focused on Huey, only this time without smiling. He seemed angry, and Huey felt a chill run down his back because of the way he looked at him. When Mark spoke, his voice was cold and hard:

“No, no, I see you don't understand. It's not an offer this time, you have no choice. Either you work for me or you will never leave this place.”

Huey felt fear, although he tried his best to hide it. He couldn't let Beaks know that he was scared, and knowing how a bad liar he was, he was aware that it’d be very difficult to fool Beaks.

Huey frowned and looked past Beaks. Behind him, he could see the door was open. Maybe he didn't have to pretend, not if he could escape! So, with a smile, the duck looked at Beaks again and in a mischievous voice said:

"Oh really? Well, look how I do it!”

The young duck ran out of the room. It took a brief moment to get his bearings. He was on the ninth floor of the building, according to the sign next to the slide. The slide would lead him to the seventh floor, and from there he just had to follow the path that he was mentally tracing out.

Huey was so glad that he studied the building’s infrastructure while he was interning there. The information Dewey called ‘useless’ was now proving to be very helpful.

The young duck ran and ran. If he didn’t hurry, the guards could take him and bring him back, and that was something he couldn’t allow. If he fell back into Beaks’ hands, the parrot wouldn’t let him escape again. He had to take that chance while he had it.

But while he was running, Huey noticed something very strange. There wasn’t a single worker around. Where was everybody? Reflecting on it, the ten-year-old boy thought he had been kidnapped on Saturday, which meant that today was Sunday. So, being Sunday, maybe they all had the day off? But Huey wasn’t fully convinced. There should be someone chasing him, at least, and not a soul could be seen anywhere.

Huey shook his head. He couldn’t think about that now. He had to escape and return to his home, or at least find a phone to alert the police. Not long now, he would soon be on the ground floor and once there, the only thing he had to do was run to the entrance and once outside he could...

The duckling stopped dead at the sight he received. Instead of seeing Duckburg's buildings, what appeared before his eyes was a large, leafy forest. How was that possible? If the building he’d just left was the Waddle building, how could he be in the middle of a forest?

Huey was so confused that he didn’t realize that someone was approaching from behind until they grabbed by the collar of the shirt and lifted him off the ground. Shortly after, he was immobilized by a string and muscular arm that wrapped around him and omen, keeping him pinned to whoever had caught him.

 _Great,_ he’d been caught again. The ten-year-old boy struggled, trying to escape his captor, but his efforts were useless. Seeing that it was a waste of time, Huey stopped moving. It’d do no good for him if he wasted all his strength by struggling. He’d have to find another chance to escape.

Resigned, the little duck dressed in red looked up to see who had caught him, and his eyes widened in recognition.

"Falcon Graves?"

The hawk looked the duckling in the eye. His gaze was cold and distant.

Huey shuddered at that look, but he didn't have much time to focus on it, because Beaks' voice soon reached his ears when the parrot spoke:

“Yes, that's right, hadn't I told you? I hired him to kidnap you.”

Huey looked first at Mark and then again at Graves. In a slightly trembling voice, he asked the hawk:

"B-but I thought you were a business saboteur, t-that you only stole secrets for whoever hired you.”

The hawk looked at him again and began to answer:

"Yes, that's right young one, but-"

Graves was suddenly interrupted by Beaks who explained in a cheerful and carefree voice:

“What happens is that I convinced him by saying that there were many secrets in your head that would be available to whatever company you decide to work for in the future, and that I wanted those secrets before anyone else could have them. So, kidnapping you was technically stealing future business secrets. It's what I call… an investment for the future.”

Huey frowned, his arms were free, so, raising his right arm, he pointed at Beaks while asking Falcon:

"Did you really accept this job from him? He’s the worst!"

The hawk snorted and replied:

"It may not be the most ethical, but it’s well paid."

Beaks waved their conversation away, stepping in front and gesturing to the forest around them:

"Hey that's good, anyway, now that that’s all clear, I guess you may have realized that we aren’t in Duckburg anymore."

Naturally he’d said that looking at Huey, who simply remained silent and glared at Waddle’s CEO.

Before the duck’s intentional silence, Beaks shrugged, saying:

"I'll take it as a yes. Well, what you see here is a prototype of the Waddle building that I had built when I started making my fortune."

Huey raised an eyebrow and asked:

"A prototype?"

Beaks nodded and replied:

“Yes, something like a real-scale model of the design that I wanted for my company. I had it built to see if I liked the look, and look, I did! I liked it so much I had it built the same exact way back in Duckburg.”

Huey looked around. If this building was identical to Duckburg's, then maybe he could find a way to communicate with his family, but before doing that, he’d have to tell them where exactly he was. So, in an innocent voice, the red-clad triplet asked:

"Okay and where did you build this prototype?"

Beaks, who had returned his attention to his mobile phone, replied:

"I had it built on- Oh! You're very smart boy, you almost get me to tell you where we are, but no, I've contained myself on time, I'm the best!”

Huey let out a sigh, his plan had failed. Maybe Beaks was smarter than he seemed. Trying to hide his disappointment at not getting an answer, the duckling listened as Mark continued, saying:

“The location of this place is secret, nobody knows that this building exists! And, in fact, nobody knows that this land is my property. I personally made sure that it wouldn’t appear in any register, so nobody knows that you are here Huey."

This last statement made the efforts to hide his fear crumble away, and the little duckling felt his eyes widen with horror and tears were beginning to form in them, although he refused to let them flow freely. He didn't want Beaks or Graves to see him cry.

In addition, the duckling also felt that his heart accelerated as did his breathing. If they couldn't find him, what would happen to him?

Urging Falcon Graves to follow him, Beaks spoke then:

"Come on, let's go.”

Inside the building, Mark led the way to a room. He opened the door and allowed the falcon to pass through with Huey, closing it behind them. Inside the room there was a large meeting table with chairs around it. Beaks then told Graves to sit Huey at the head. The hawk did so, and after leaving the child there, he put a hand on his shoulder, exerting slight pressure to prevent the duckling from moving. Turning to Beaks he asked:

"Wouldn't it be better to tie him up to prevent him from escaping?"

Mark looked at Huey and then breezily replied:

"No, I don't think it's necessary, this kid is smart enough to know he can't escape, I don't think he’ll try anything."

Falcon nodded and released Huey's shoulder. The triplet dressed in red was relieved to know that they wouldn’t tie him. It was like a little consolation in his bad situation. But on the other hand, it made him angry that Beaks seemed to know him so well. How had he learned all that about him?

Huey glared at the table’s surface, hands firmly in lap, he refused to look at either of the two birds watching him. Why had Beaks taken them to this room? What was going to happen next? Suddenly something entered his vision’s field. Some kind of printed document.

Looking up, the young duck saw that it was Beaks who had handed him that document. Huey looked at Waddle's CEO with narrowed eyes. What were those papers that Beaks was shoving in his face?

The parrot seemed to understand the inner question that the boy asked himself, and said:

“This is a contract for you to sign it and work for me.”

Seriously? Didn't he ever give up? Huey frowned further; he saw there was a pen clipped to the paper. The duckling dressed in red had no intention of signing that contract. Even if he did, it wouldn’t be valid. He was a minor, for all his feathers, it could only be valid if it was his uncle Donald who signed it, and he knew perfectly well that his uncle would never do anything like that. Couldn't Beaks see that?

The older triplet took the document with both hands and stupefied Waddle’s CEO by tearing it in half, then again, and again. When he finished, he left the pieces on the table in front of Mark Beaks. Having done this, the duck looked defiant at the parrot.

"This is my answer.” he added, crossing his arms.

From somewhere behind him, Huey heard Graves giggle slightly, which made him smile internally.

But the moment of joy didn’t last long, because suddenly and without warning, Huey felt that he was pushed back, immobilized in the chair. The action was so sudden that it made him close his eyes, and when he opened them again, he found himself looking at Mark Beaks' hateful face. At that moment, Huey had a hard time breathing and felt that drops of sweat had accumulated on his forehead. What was Beaks going to do to him?

The Waddle’s CEO never looked away from the terrified duckling as he said harshly:

“I’ve tried to do this for the nice way, giving you plenty of chances to work for me legally and fairly, but you’ve refused to do so. Well, my patience has run out Huey! I’ll get what I want, and I want you be under my orders forever.”

That said, the parrot pulled away and grabbed Huey by the arm, dragging him out of the chair and to who knew where. Huey tried to resist, but it was useless. Even being a tall and gangly parrot, Beaks was much stronger than he seemed.

The parrot marched through the halls of the building, pulling Huey like a dog on a leash until he stopped in front of a door, which opened to reveal a small room without windows, not even lights, it looked like a small closet.

Huey gulped, fearing what Beaks intended to do next. Mark gave one last gate-filled glare before saying:

"You're going to work for me Huey, one way or another.”

And with that, the parrot threw the boy into the small space and locked the door, leaving the terrified duckling in completely alone in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp here ends this chapter, I'd like to know how many of you thought that Huey was actually in Waddle at Duckburg, did I surprised you having him into a totally different place? Please tell me. Okay, more things will happen (and not good, at least not for Huey). For those who guessed that Graves was the kidnapper, good job, and of course, he did it because he was hired for Beaks (ironical after what happened the last time that both saw each other).
> 
> To be honest, I don’t really remember how the idea of having Huey tearing the contract into pieces came to my mind, but when I got the idea, I couldn’t let it go, I needed to write it.
> 
> I hope you all liked this chapter, if so, please don’t forget to leave a review, I always love to know what people think. In fact, I'm excited to know what do you think about this one :D
> 
> P.S. I've some art related with this story and I've tried many times to insert images into the text, but I've never succeeded. Is there a charitable soul that knows how to do it? I'll be very thankful if someone can help me to do it. And if even that I can't do it, I'll add a link with the place where you can find the pictures


	7. Apologies and suspicions

After Dewey explained to his family about Falcon Graves and how he and Huey fought the hawk to prevent him from throwing Mark Beaks from a rooftop, Dewey looked at Webby. But she deliberately looked away, which made the triplet dressed in blue feel deeply guilty.

He had accused her for letting Huey be kidnapped and that wasn’t fair. Webby wasn’t of the kind of person who would abandon others if she could help it. Not before, not even now. How could he even think of something like that? He owed his friend a colossal apology.

Webby suddenly turned and left the room. Where was she going? The middle triplet was about to follow her, but his uncle stopped him by asking:

"Why do you think Falcon Graves would be interested in kidnapping Huey?"

Dewey looked at his uncle hopelessly. Honestly, he didn't know how to answer that, but he tried anyway:

"I don't know, maybe because Huey was the one who devised the plan to stop him, I only fought him until Huey made him take an interest in the briefcase I was carrying,"

At the mention of a briefcase, Scrooge frowned and asked the triplet dressed in blue:

"A briefcase? What briefcase?”

Dewey replied:

“Glomgold’s briefcase that was from your millionaire club, next to the armor set. It turned out that it was full of money.”

Scrooge's frown deepened and with his hands on his hips and scolded:

"Did ye steal a briefcase full of money from my club?"

Dewey quickly raised his hands in defense, saying:

“First of all, I didn't know it was full of money. Secondly, you should improve the security of your club. Anyone could have taken it.”

Scrooge let out an exasperated sigh and, shaking his head, said:

"We'll talk about that later, lad. Now we should focus on why Graves would want target Huey. Maybe he wanted revenge?"

Louie made a mouse of disagreement. The hypothesis proposed by his great-uncle didn’t fit, and he said so when he said:

“If so, why would he only want vengeance on Huey when Dewey was also there? Wouldn't it be logical for him to go after both of them and not just one?”

Scrooge looked at his younger nephew and nodded in agreement as he replied:

"Ye're right Louie, there has to be something else, something that escapes us.”

Dewey looked back at the door Webby had left. He couldn't wait any longer, he had to apologize to her for what he said. With this idea in mind, the middle triplet hurried to the door as he said:

"Yes, uh... you can think about that. I need, uh... a moment in the bathroom.”

Dewey left the living room and looked in all directions. Where had Webby gone? He needed to find and apologize to her. But where could she have gone? Thinking a little, Dewey concluded that Webby had probably returned to her room. Lena was still there after all. Maybe... Webby had gone to see how her friend was, it would be logical.

Dewey quickly started up the stairs heading to his friend's room but as he approached, voices coming from the room reached his ears:

_"So, someone took the red one?"_

That was Lena, apparently, she had already woken up.

_"Yes…"_

That was Webby. Her voice sounded so sad and hurt... and all because of him. He had to fix things with her. As Dewey approached, Lena continued speaking:

_"But Webby, from what you told me, you couldn't do anything to stop it. You shouldn't feel guilty."_

Dewey shuddered, he’d blamed Webby because she was the last to succumb to the dream, but Dewey was aware that she couldn’t have done anything, Dewey remembered very well the feeling of his getting heavier, consciousness wavering, pulling his mind down with heavy sleep. In fact, he admired Webby for staying awake so long.

_"I know... but still... Dewey said..."_

Dewey winced, feeling guiltiest than ever. How could he be so dumb? Taking a deep breath, Dewey was about to enter when Lena snapped angrily:

_"That duck is dumb."_

Dewey couldn’t help but feel a little insulted despite himself. Webby gasped and said:

_"Lena don't say that!"_

He was glad to hear that Webby was still defending him, even if he didn't deserve it. Lena continued on, voice full of conviction:

_"No Webby, he’s wrong. he had no right to say any of that."_

Dewey heard Webby sigh before answering:

_"But maybe he’s right, I should have tried harder, I should-"_

Dewey couldn't take it anymore. He swung through the door without knocking interrupted:

"No! Webby, don’t say that. I know you did everything you could.”

The two girls looked up in surprise, a little starlet by his unexpected appearance. Lena was the first to react, crossing her arms and demanding:

"How long have you been spying on us?"

Dewey shook his head, feeling a little anxious. He came to apologize, not make them angry. He assured:

" I just arrived; I've barely heard anything.”

Lena frowned even more and then said:

"Okay, if you just arrived, you can go where you came from."

Dewey shook his head and replied:

"No. I can’t leave until I talk to Webby.”

Lena put her hands on her hips and squinting at the blue-dressed duck and said:

"Well, she doesn't want to talk to you, so vanish.”

Dewey looked pleadingly at Webby, silently begging her friend for a moment to talk. She looked at him sadly. Then, letting out a sigh, she turned to her teenage friend and said:

"Lena, it’s okay. What do you want, Dewey?"

The middle triplet was glad that Webby allowed him to talk to her, though... what he wanted to say... he wanted only Webby to hear. He looked again to Webby and asked with the same nervousness:

"I... could we talk in private?"

Lena immediately jumped at those words saying:

"No way.”

But Dewey repeated:

"Please Webby,”

The young girl looked at Dewey with some uncertainty, but finally, sighed and asked:

"Lena, do you mind giving us five minutes?"

The teenager opened her eyes bewildered and shouted incredulously:

"Are you serious? After what he told you?”

"Yes." was the only thing Webby answered.

Lena closed her beak and left the room utterly perplexed, giving Dewey one last warning glare before he shut the door. Taking a deep breath, he said:

"Webby I... I'm really sorry for blaming you. It wasn’t fair of me, I didn’t mean any of it."

The girl with a bow in her hair forced a tight smile and replied as brightly as she could:

"Oh, you don't have to apologize Dewey, I understand... Huey is your brother, not mine."

Dewey immediately shook his head and, looking at the girl directly in the eyes, said:

“No Webby. You’re like a sister to us, I had no right to tell you that stuff. I was so confused, scared, worried… that when I heard you say that Huey wasn’t kidnapped randomly, something inside me just broke down, and I told you horrible things when you didn't deserve them. You’re my best friend and I hurt your feelings… I didn’t mean to, I was just scared and Huey’s g-gone and I don’t want you to leave me too but I…”

He warbled off, voice growing too thick to speak. He was afraid if he said any more, he would start bawling. When he finished speaking, Dewey looked like he was about to cry, which caused Webby to tentatively approach him and give him a hug. That gesture caused the triplet to finally collapse and tears fell freely down his face.

Webby gave Dewey soft pats on the back, trying to comfort him, and when the middle brother seemed to calm down a little, Webby said sweetly:

"Don't worry, we'll find him.”

Dewey broke away from the hug with Webby and looked at the girl appreciatively. He really wanted to believe they would find Huey, but Falcon Graves was a professional. How would they find him? Thinking about that hawk... Dewey thought his little brother was right. If Graves was seeking revenge, why did he only take Huey? Why did he leave him behind?

"Louie is right." he said suddenly.

Webby looked at Dewey with a curious expression face and asked:

"Louie was what?"

Dewey remembered that she wasn’t there for that part of the conversation. He explained:

“Louie doesn’t think Graves took Huey for revenge, and I don’t think so either.” 

Webby asked: 

“You’ve met him before?” 

Dewey nodded and said: 

“Yes. Me and Huey fought him once. It doesn’t make sense that he would only take one of us.” 

Webby acquired a thoughtful stance. After a few moments of reflection, the young girl said:

"Maybe... maybe that Falcon didn't do it for his own motivation, maybe someone hired him to do it. How many people do we know that have something against Huey?"

Dewey was afraid to think that his older brother could have enemies who hated him so bad that they wanted to hurt him. How many people could have something against Huey? Apart from his uncle Scrooge's enemies... who else? Dewey looked at Webby and said:

"Whoever did it would need enough money to hire Graves. Graves is a professional.”

The girl acquired a thoughtful posture again and after a while said:

“That reduces the suspects’ number. Actually, I think we only know two people capable of affording that’s. And from the two, only one of them who has something against Huey. Think, Dewey. Who had enough money and hatred to pay someone to kidnap him?”

Dewey seemed to think about it for a few moments and then his eyes slowly opened as he lifted a finger.

Webby stared at him for a moment, waiting to see if he would say anything, but seeing that the boy dressed in blue said nothing, it was she who spoke saying:

"Mark Beaks.”

"Yes, that, Mark Beaks, that's what I was going to say," Dewey nodes quickly, as if he’d also been thinking that.

Webby decided to ignore that, and grabbed Dewey’s hand. She dragged him out the room while saying:

"Come on! We’ve got to tell this to the others."

On their way through the hall they passed Lena, sulking against a wall. Dewey thought he saw, even if only for a moment, that Lena's shadow had red eyes, but that was impossible. Probably just a trick of lighting. Anyway, the two ducklings ran down the stairs to where the rest of the family was, Lena following closely behind them.

Once there, they excitedly explained their theory of Mark Beaks. The new possibility only made both Scrooge and Donald enraged. If Beaks was really responsible for Huey’s kidnapping, then the two uncles were going to make it clear to that pretentious parrot that no one would mess with their family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, here’s the new chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! I really thought that Dewey needed to apologize with Webby (he wasn’t very nice with her last time). Also, this helped to start looking for real suspects behind Huey’s kidnapping.
> 
> I’m sorry if you hoped more about Huey, and his currently situation. Just to calm you... hopefully, in the next chapter, we’ll discover what’s really planning to do Beaks with his ‘guest’.
> 
> As always, thank you to all who read this story, the ones who are following it and specially, the ones who leave reviews. You can't imagine how happy makes me to know what people think about this story, I love you all!
> 
> Empro-8 thank you so much for editing this, you’re really helping me a lot.


	8. New action plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody, I guess that, like me, you’re very excited for today’s new episode. I’ve to say that I loved ‘Louie’s Eleven!’ that was an awesome episode! And it makes me think that this story wouldn’t be possible (Graves working willingly for Beaks… don’t think so), buuut, since I wrote this story long before this episode was aired, this doesn’t matter, does it?  
> Welp, I'm sure you're excited to read the new episode, so here you've it. Time to find out what is Beaks planning to do with poor Huey. Enjoy the chapter 😉

After enclosing Huey in that dark and tiny space, it didn’t take even five seconds to the duckling to start pounding on the door, desperately begging to be let out. But Beaks wasn't going to do it. Because the boy had refused to work for him willingly, Mark was going to force the duckling into following him blindly.

He was going to bend Huey's will so that he’d only answer to him and no one else. Yes, that little duck dressed in red was going to be the most submissive and faithful worker under his charge. And when he accomplished that feat, he’d exploit the boy to practical exhaustion.

Nobody says no to Mark Beaks! Nobody!

The Waddle’s CEO’s thoughts were interrupted when he heard Graves approaching. The falcon seemed surprised. Perhaps because he’d always thought that Beaks was a very carefree and superficial person, and seeing him so furious with that boy left him... stunned. But Mark didn't care about what that falcon thought of him. The only thing that mattered at that moment were the strict instructions her needed to give Graves regarding how the duckling should be locked up.

When the hawk stopped beside Beaks, his gaze went to the closed door behind him. The triplet dressed in red was still knocking and knocking to be let out. If Graves felt sorry for that boy, he hid it very well. Turning his attention from the door to Beaks, Falcon asked:

"Mr. Beaks what are you going to do with that boy?”

Mark shot the hawk with a sharp frown, his eyes narrowed as he furiously replied:

“What am I going to do? I'm going to get him to work for me! And since I haven't succeeded by being nice, I'm going to try a new tactic, and I need you for it.”

Graves' eyes widened in surprise at that. Then the hawk asked:

"Me?"

Beaks nodded, stepped away from the hawk with his hands behind his back. Turning to face him, he replied:

"Yes, you'll see I’ve got to go back to Duckburg to take care of some business, and while I'm away, I want you to take care of the boy."

Graves was clearly furious, because his profession didn’t include taking care of kidnapped children. He clenched his fists and bellowed:

"But I'm not a babysitter!"

Beaks smiled. He knew that what the hawk said was true, but he had already prepared for that conversation, so he calmly replied:

"I know, but in one of the contract’s clauses you signed, it specified that you’d take care of Huey whenever I ordered it, which is what I’m doing now."

Graves' eyes widened in surprise. It was true that he had signed a contract, but he remembered reading it carefully to save himself from such future problems. In a suspicious voice he said:

"I don't remember that specific clause.”

Beaks smiled even more, and taking out the document signed by Falcon, specifically pointed out the part in which there was the clause they commented while saying:

"It was in the fine print.”

Graves took the document from his hands and as he read the marked part, his hands began to shake and finally he said:

"I... you... arg... okay, what do I have to do?"

Mark turned his back on the hawk, and walking towards a window, looked towards the forest on the other side. He answered:

"Oh, they are simple tasks. First of all, you cannot speak to him, not a single word. He’s in solitary confinement and will be kept isolated for several days,”

Graves replied:

"That... seems easy,"

The Waddle’s CEO nodded slightly and continued with his task’s list:

"Afterwards, I want you to feed him only once a day, with enough food to survive and nothing else,"

After giving him that second task, Graves' eyes widened in shock, one thing was to treat the boy like a prisoner, since technically he was, but another thing was to practice torture in him; and to feed him less than what was necessary was like a kind of torture. So, although Graves couldn’t refuse Beaks' orders, he asked slightly worried:

“Isn't that a bit cruel? Given that he’s a child and all that?”

Beaks turned and glared at the hawk with obvious fury in his eyes, the Waddle’s CEO wasn’t in the mood for anyone else telling him ‘no’ today. The hawk was going to do what he ordered, period. So, angrily he replied to Graves:

"You’ll do what I order you! Just one meal a day, oh and never feed him at the same time, that way his body doesn’t get used to a feeding schedule. I want him to lose track of time."

Graves was dismayed by the hatred emanating from Beaks at that time. Everything he wanted to do to that child... exceeded what he would do to someone. Above all, considering that he was willing to throw the parrot in front of him off a rooftop.

But it was one thing to violently throw someone from a great height (knowing that there were trampolines underneath), and another to purposely torture a child like this. Taking a deep breath, the hawk looked Beaks in the eye and asked:

"And what are all these measures for?"

Beaks looked at where Huey was locked. Apparently, the boy had given up knocking on the door, and instead, a soft cry could be heard from inside. The Waddle’s CEO smiled mischievously and looking back at Graves. He replied by saying:

"I want to try something called ‘coercive persuasion’. Or commonly known as _brainwashing_.”

Falcon's eyes widened in shock again. Had he heard correctly? Shaking his head, the hawk asked incredulously:

"Do you want to brainwash that child?"

The parrot looked again through the window and in a dark voice replied:

"Yes, that's what I want, I want that brat to obey only me."

The hawk closed his eyes and breathed a sigh. When he opened his eyes again, he said to the other bird:

"You’re really obsessed with that boy, Mr. Beaks.”

Without turning, Mark shrugged and replied:

“Maybe, but he has achieved something that nobody had ever achieved before.”

Graves tilted his head, surprised, what had that child achieved? Curious, the hawk asked:

"Oh yeah? What did he do?”

Mark turned to Falcon Graves, still clearly furious and answered:

"He ended my patience. I don’t want him to simply work for me, but as a slave, servile and obedient only to me. I will not rest until I get it."

Graves remained silent for a while, probably assimilating Beaks’ answer. He probably didn't share the parrot’s opinion, but he was just an employee, he couldn't comment.

Suddenly, a delicate… question came to his mind, and although a little unsure of whether to ask it or not, the hawk finally resolved that it was better to ask that question and hope that Beaks wouldn’t be enraged.

So, clearing his throat, Graves asked:

"Mr. Beaks, one last question. What do I do if the boy asks to go to the bathroom?”

Beaks looked at Falcon with much less anger than before, and after considering it for a few moments, responded:

“Bring him a bucket and toilet paper. Everything he’s to do, he’s to do it in that bucket. The point is that that duck can't leave that room, not for any reason in the world.”

Graves let out a sigh as he closed his eyes, the idea of having to wash a bucket didn't really fascinate him, but again, he was an employee, working under contract. He couldn’t disobey Beaks, although he would gladly do it if it weren’t for the very generous paycheck he was going to get from this. Really, with the money he was going to earn, all this added work was worth it.

When Graves opened his eyes again, he looked at Mark and asked:

"Is there anything else I should keep in mind?"

Beaks looked back at the door where Huey was. Cries mixed with hiccups were still perfectly audible, and probably would be for a while. After a few seconds of looking at that door, Mark answered Graves' question:

"No, not for now. I'll take care of the rest once I... have everything ready."

Mark turned away, saying:

"Well, I'm leaving now. I leave everything in your hands Graves, I'll be back in a few days."

And after these words, the parrot left. He had to go back to Duckburg to prepare the next part of his plan, which he would set in motion when he considered Huey’s mind weakened enough to properly manipulate it. And Mark already knew how he’d manipulate that duckling's mind. He planned to get the boy to doubt his family, to the point where he even came to believe that his loved ones despised and hated him. He’d obviously get all of that by showing the child carefully selected pieces of information, and even lying to him in order to corroborate his story.

The Waddle’s CEO was glad that Huey's family still hadn’t realized that he had hacked the mansion’s security cameras, that gave him hours and hours of recording, and surely, he’d use those images to 'convince' the duckling dressed in red that his family didn't love him.

If he could manage to make the duck feel lonely and abandoned, it would be easier for Beaks to get the boy to develop dependency on him. He’d have to be patient and careful.

Beaks arrived at his Waddle office in the late afternoon. Besides the security guards, the building was empty, which left him in the perfect situation to begin cherry-picking the ideal clips to show Huey. The parrot sat at his desk and down and pulled out his laptop, beginning to scroll through all the McDuck mansion’s recordings he had. Reviewing and reviewing images, he found the first one that could help him. In this clip, one of Huey’s brothers sat quietly in the living room when the second one suddenly burst in, clearly angry.

* * *

_Scene_

_The blue-dressed triplet entered the room where the youngest one was watching television. He'd a frown and his hands were clenched into fists. Marching to the sofa, the boy dropped into the cushions, next to his brother._

_The boy in a green sweatshirt looked momentarily at the other duck before turning his attention back to the program he was watching. When the blue brother still didn’t say anything, the hooded duckling sighed and asked:_

_"Come on Dewey, it’s obvious that you're furious. Want you to tell me what’s bothering you?”_

_The boy dressed in blue looked at his brother and with a frown and asked:_

_"Aren't you fed up with Huey organizing the whole day for us?"_

_The boy in green shrugged and replied:_

_"To be honest, maybe a little bit. I’d mostly rather sit and watch TV instead of doing any of the activities Huey has planned.”_

_Dewey breathed a tired sigh, then said with clear frustration:_

_"I don't know Lou, sometimes I think Huey thinks he is better than us just because he's the oldest."_

_His brother seemed to agree, because he soon responded:_

_"I agree... it's like he thinks that being the oldest gives him the right to order us around like a sergeant or whatever."_

_Dewey moved to face his brother and then said while almost shouting:_

_"Just because he was born three seconds before me, that doesn’t make me his slave! He doesn’t have the right to tell me what to do."_

_Louie rose his eyebrows, alarmed at his brother. He asked:_

_"You seriously think Huey considers us his slaves?"_

_The response was not long in coming:_

_"Yes."_

_But almost instantly Dewey’s expression dropped and his features were filled with guilt and remorse. He spoke again:_

_"Well, actually no. I know he doesn't consider us his actual slaves; he only acts as an older brother. But he takes his role too way to seriously."_

_Then the boy sighed and continued saying:_

_"Although… I gotta admit his schedules do help. He has helped me to not forget some pretty important things."_

_Louie smiled at that comment and added:_

_"Yes. Like remember when we had that school camping trip? If it hadn’t been for our brother, we would’ve left without anything packed.”_

_The boy dressed in blue chuckled, then softened his expression. More or less serious, he said:_

_"Yes, although I'll never admit it in front of him, Huey’s organization has made our lives better... I'm glad Huey is our older brother."_

_Louie nodded then turned to watch television again, answering:_

_"Yes, me too."_

_End of the scene_

* * *

Well, it’d be enough to show Huey only the first part of that conversation. The boy didn’t need to know that his brothers had later admitted their pride of having him as an older brother. That part was… totally inappropriate for his plan.

Now all Beaks had to do was keep looking for more scenes like that, one... or more for each family member.

Beaks was about to continue searching for more scenes when suddenly a call by the company's internal communicator stopped him from doing so.

Annoyed by that fact, the Waddle’s CEO answered call in a dry voice:

"What's going on?"

The voice on the other side of the intercom responded:

_"Mr. Beaks, sorry for interrupting you, but… the police have come and they want to talk with you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that’s all for now, what do you think about what happened here? As you can see, Beaks isn’t a good guy, he’s… a monster! Let me know what do you think about this please, I’d really want to know your thoughts.  
> I really want to thank Empro-8 for editing this story, and make it better than it could be! I really appreciate all and every edition she made, thank you very much! I also want to thank to all the people who read this story, the ones who left kudos, the ones who bookmarked, the ones who subscribed and specially, I want to thank: andypng and drummerGirl231 for their reviews! Thank you very much!!


	9. It is a promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here I bring you the new chapter, I hope you all will like it! I really want to thank Empro8 for helping me on editing this story, I’m very grateful to her 😊 😊 😊

Fenton was actually flying to Waddle’s building. Mr. McDuck had called and informed him about the situation. That boy, Huey, the first person who believed in him, the one who fixed his suit, the one who spent so many hours in the hospital accompanying him while he was recovering... had been kidnapped. And the number one suspect was Mark Beaks, who else could be?

The Hispanic duck didn’t know much about the McDuck family’s numerous enemies. But he did know Beaks enough to know he could hold a deep resentment against anyone who crosses him. Fenton could only hope that if Huey was indeed in Beaks’ hands, that he could be rescued as soon as possible.

But, if the parrot wasn’t responsible of his disappearance, then Fenton would find Suspect #2 real fast. He would follow all clues until the kidnapper was found and Huey was safe.

But Fenton was worried. He didn't know what situation Huey was in, or what those who took him planned to do with him. The only thing the superhero knew, as Mr. McDuck told him, was that his capture was a deliberate attack against Huey specifically, no one else.

Yes, the duckling was the kidnappers' only objective, but what was the reason? Fenton wished with all his heart that they would find answers in Waddle, and hopefully, the boy himself.

When he got there, the first thing Fenton noticed was that his mother was there also, along with other officers and Mr. McDuck’s family. The Hispanic duck gulped. His mother didn’t know that he was now a superhero, and for obvious reasons, he wanted to keep it that way. Even still, Fenton knew there would be times that he’d have to work side by side with the police, which meant work with his mother, he had just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon. She could never discover his secret identity. The less she knew, safer she would be.

Landing at a safe distance so he wouldn’t harm anyone, Gizmoduck quickly approached Mr. McDuck and his family and said:

"Mr. McDuck! I came as fast as I could after receiving your call.”

Scrooge looked at him and nodded seriously:

"Good, lad, I'm glad ye're here."

Fenton couldn’t blame Mr. McDuck for his seriousness, especially given the situation’s gravity. Even though Fenton knew what was happening to the family, he couldn’t understand how they had been able to determine that Beaks was the one to blame for Huey's kidnapping. Gizmoduck exposed this by saying:

"If it's not too much to ask, what has led you to think that Mark Beaks is the one to blame for all this?"

Scrooge looked at the three ducklings next to him, and putting his hand on the head of the only girl in the group, the richest duck in the world replied:

"This young girl saw the kidnapper... partially, but with what she saw, we came to the conclusion that it was someone named Falcon Graves, who had worked for Beaks in the past.”

Fenton started to say something else, but just then, Mark Beaks appeared. He rolled in with his usual music and flashing Segway board, but was clearly furious. Seeing Scrooge, Gizmoduck, and all the officers, he singled Fenton’s mother out as the top officer and bellowed loudly:

"What does all this mean?!"

Fenton's mother immediately took the initiative. Stepping closer to Mark, she replied calmly:

"Mr. Beaks, you’re suspected of kidnapping a child.”

The Waddle’s CEO reeled back, apparently surprised, although Fenton couldn’t tell if his surprise was real or feigned. Then, the parrot asked:

"Kidnapping?! Kidnapping of who?”

The next person who spoke, was the other adult duck, who was next to Mr. McDuck, and seemed quite distressed by the situation. When that duck spoke, he did it practically jumping on Beaks while shouting:

"My nephew! And if I find out that you've done something to him then I'm going to... AQKKAYQBA!”

Wow, so that sailor-dressed duck was Huey's uncle, and most likely Mr. McDuck's nephew.

Fenton saw that Scrooge quickly got between that duck and Mark, while trying to calm the sailor-dressed duck down, saying:

"Come on Donald, calm down. Ye getting like this won't help us at all."

Mark narrowed his eyes and focused all his attention on the duck with a top hat. Waddle’s CEO crossed his arms and said angrily:

“Don't tell me Scrooge, do you really think that the disappearance of that nephew of yours is my work? Or is all this really a ruse to discredit me so I’ll never become richer than you?”

This time it was Scrooge's turn to squint, and glaring back at the Waddle’s CEO he replied confidently:

"I do not need to resort to such lowly measures to earn more money than you Beaks, but one thing I do share with my nephew, is if ye really are responsible of Huey’s disappearance, I will personally take care of ending ye.”

Beaks threw his arms up exasperatedly, as if for him that whole situation was absurd, and looking to Fenton's mother. He complained:

“Oh, come on, this is ridiculous officer. Why would I want to kidnap that kid? I’ve got nothing against him.”

Before any of the adults could respond, a new voice joined the conversation, saying:

"That is not true."

Everyone looked down in surprise, and saw that the one who had spoken was the little duck dressed in blue —Dewey if Fenton remembered correctly— whose hands were clenched in fists, glaring at Beaks with ferocity in his expression. The parrot focused its attention on the little one and asked:

"What?"

The duckling pointed the Waddle’s CEO with his finger and accused Mark by saying:

"I know perfectly well that you hate my brother. You can't stand him."

The other duckling, the one who wore green, stood next to Dewey and added:

"Yes, it’s true. In addition, we saw what happened the other day on television. There it could be seen pretty well that precisely... you don't like our brother.”

Mark put a hand to his chest and sounding angry, answered the two ducklings saying:

"Do you accuse me only for some images that you saw on television?"

The boy who wore blue was far from yielding to Beaks' words. He narrowed his eyes. And answered the parrot with a furiously calm voice:

“The guy who kidnapped Huey is Falcon Graves, whom you hired to steal the TAH-DAH project, a project that never really existed.”

The parrot crossed his arms at those words, and in an annoyed voice responded to those accusations:

“Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I didn’t hire Graves, my project did exist, and it was stolen by Graves in the first place! He took me hostage, remember? You just say all this because I fired you and your stupid brother when you were my interns.”

That seemed to deplete Dewey's patience, who in a clearly furious voice exploded screaming:

"You’re lying!”

Mark narrowed his eyes at the boy and responded:

"You can't prove it."

Parrot and duck looked each other furiously. It seemed that at any moment one was going to jump on the other, to the point that Fenton wondered whether he should intervene or not.

Fortunately, someone else decided to intervene, ending that discussion. And that person was his mother, who, putting herself between them, looked at the Waddle’s CEO and said:

"Mr. Beaks apart from the assumptions of this boy and his family, the police have reason to suspect you. Remember that I was here the day of the incident with Waddleduck, and I saw that the relationship between you could be considered… tense.”

The Waddle’s CEO changed his focus from Huey's brother to the police officer who had interposed herself among them. Speaking harshly, he told her:

"And that is it enough to believe that I’ve kidnapped him?"

Fenton smiled proudly when he saw his mother crossing her arms and confidently answered:

"It’s enough to consider you a suspect, and that authorizes us to investigate and register your properties."

Mark narrowed his eyes at the woman, but finally, he gave in while saying:

"Register what you want. You won’t find the boy, because I haven’t kidnapped him."

His mother took a step toward the parrot saying:

"If you're so sure about that..." then she turned to her agents, ordering them:

"All men, begin to search the building."

Then she turned back to the Waddle’s CEO and said:

"And you Mr. Beaks, I’ll need a list of your properties to be registered to them too, and don't skip any, you know we can easily contrast the information you provide us."

Beaks snorted and said that naturally he wouldn’t skip anything, because the parrot affirmed and assured that he had nothing to hide.

Fenton frowned. Despite Beaks' claims, the Hispanic duck saw him smile with some malice, as if he was hiding something and knew there was no way to be discovered. That made him suspect, it was very likely that the parrot knew more than he was letting on.

The police quickly began the building’s inspection process. Beaks was very collaborative with them, allowing them access to the entire building, to prove that he was hiding nothing. He also gave the authorities a list of all his properties, adding that if they wanted him to be present when they registered them, they only had to notify him.

All this cooperative attitude only heightened Fenton's suspicions that Beaks was hiding something. He'd have to talk with him privately, but he couldn’t do it while the search was taking place. For obvious reasons they didn’t allow Mr. McDuck's family to participate. Fortunately, he was given free access to investigate results as much as he wanted, something that Fenton obviously did, trying to not leave a single space overlooked.

When the police announced that they hadn’t found anything and that they were leaving, Fenton saw it as the chance to talk with Beaks alone. While his mother and the other officers were transmitting their results to the victim’s family, Gizmoduck went directly to Beaks office, knowing that the parrot had gone there when the police announced that they had finished.

When he arrived at Beaks' office, saw that the parrot was doing something with his laptop. This gave Fenton the idea that, if he managed to hack Beaks' servers, maybe he could get more information, and determine whether the parrot had lied to them. Something that the Hispanic duck already had as an almost absolute certainty.

That thought made him so furious that he entered to the office before he could stop himself, practically shouting:

"Beaks, where is the boy?"

The Waddle’s CEO jumped slightly at the sudden interruption, and quickly lowered the laptop screen, probably trying to hide what he was doing.

When the parrot recovered from the "fright" took a confident stance, and looking Fenton in the face said:

"Remember that I know who is hiding under that Gizmo suit, so don’t even try to threaten me. I can reveal your identity to the whole world, and we both know that you aren’t interested in that."

Getting carried away with anger had been a mistake, but in Fenton's defense, he was so worried about Huey that he couldn't help reacting like that against the most suspicious person of his disappearance.

Taking a deep breath, the Hispanic duck tried to control his growing anger, and speaking in a much calmer voice and perhaps, with a touch of supplication, Fenton said:

"Listen Beaks, I just want you to tell me if you know anything about Huey.”

The parrot smiled and leaned back in his chair. He said cheerfully, almost as if he was mocking:

"Oh, so you know him by name."

Fenton straightened, Beaks was playing with him, with what intention? He couldn’t determine it. But he couldn’t allow that bird to discover more information than necessary, so replied:

"He is the kidnapped grand-nephew of my boss, of course I know his name. They’ve called me to look for him."

The parrot smiled even more. He seemed not to believe that was the only reason Fenton knew the boy's name, and he proved it when he asked:

"Surely that it isn’t because you’ve got a closer relationship with him than with the other Duck kids?"

The Hispanic duck was quick to answer:

"It has nothing to do with that!"

But it was clear that Beaks hadn’t believed him. He spoke again, sighing lazily:

"Oh, I should’ve guessed you’d try to deny any personal attachment to the boy, because in the case that it was me who had kidnapped him, you’d think I’d use that knowledge to harm him, don't you?"

Okay, that was enough. Beaks had crossed a line by suggesting that he’d harm Huey if he had him, which was most likely did. Slamming Mark’s desk, the superhero said angrily:

“You are a monster, Beaks! Definitely, the biggest mistake I made in my life was to accept working for you.”

The parrot then narrowed his eyes. He rose, pointing his index finger at Gizmoduck and said:

“No, your biggest mistake was believing that you could wear that suit and help people. Now what? You haven’t been able to help a poor boy who has been kidnapped without a trace. And instead of looking for him, you come here accusing me of being responsible for his disappearance,”

Then Mark turned from him and headed to the window, said:

“I know that boy trusts you deeply, Gizmoduck, and you, you’ve failed him.”

Fenton clenched his hands into fists, knowing that what that parrot was saying was true. He had failed Huey, he couldn't protect him, but that didn't entitle Mark to say those words. Facing him, the superhero spoke slowly and deliberately:

"I promise Beaks. I'll find Huey, and if you happen to be the culprit of his kidnapping, I’ll make sure justice fall upon you as severely as possible."

Beaks turned to look at him with that smug smile still on his face, and cheerfully replied:

"Oh, look how I tremble. You'll never achieve anything, _amigo_."

Fenton's voice was much harder and more dangerous than before when he replied:

"Don't be so sure Beaks. I won't rest until I find him, that's a promise."

After these words, the Hispanic duck could see a slight flash of fear in Beaks' eyes, that was enough for him. He had nothing left to do there. He knew he wouldn’t get anything else in that place, but he also knew how to move from there, although, to do so, he needed Dr. Gearloose's help. With this in mind, Fenton left the building and after saying goodbye to Mr. McDuck flew straight to the laboratory. There was a lot of work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, can anyone imagine what idea has Fenton had? Do you think that it’ll work? You’ll have to wait to discover it. Now, I’d really like to know what do you think of this chapter. This will make me really happy!!  
> AO3: As always, I’d like to thank all the people who’ve read the story, the ones who left kudos, subscribed or marked the story and specially, I’d like to thank andypng, EdenOfStory, Beet_Keys and DrummerGirl231 for their reviews. Thank you very much!!


	10. Relations and news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!! Here’s the newest chapter! I want to thank to Empro8 for her help editing it 😊. You’re really helping me a lot with this.  
> This chapter is quite emotional, it has some family feeling moments, and OMG! I really feel sad for Donald, Dewey and Louie in this one.   
> Even that, I hope you’ll like it, so here we go

Donald was desolated. A week had passed and there was no news from Huey. Every passing day made the sailor-dressed duck feel more and more desperate. Ten years ago, he lost his sister, and that hurt him… almost as much as the disappearance of his oldest nephew. But the difference between Della and Huey was that Della was an adult who made her own decisions, even if he hated the consequences it brought.

Huey in the other hand was an innocent child who was forcibly taken away from his home and kept separated from his family.

 _"Calm down Donald, we'll find him.”_ uncle Scrooge had told him, but... was his uncle really convinced of it?

Donald didn't know what to do. They didn't know why Huey had been kidnapped. But there was one thing that Donald was certain about, and it was that the culprit is Mark Beaks. They had no physical proof of it, but Donald felt the surety inside him and inside him knew it must be Mark Beaks.

 _"He’s given us access to all building’s parts, including the restricted section. He has even offered to be present when we register his other properties."_ that was what the officer Cabrera had told them when she and her agents finished their Waddle’s building registry.

Although Beaks’ cooperation with the police force might look like a sign of innocence, the sailor-dressed duck that wasn’t fooled. To be fair, Donald didn’t understand much about police investigation, but after years of seeing his uncle’s work the sea duck had a hard time believing that the leader of a technology company would be so cooperative, especially running the risk that with those registers’ information from one of his secret projects will be filtered.

Everything was too suspicious.

Donald sighed. So far, whenever the police had contacted his family, it had been to tell them the same thing: That they still had no clue to the whereabouts of the red-dressed triplet. It seemed as if the boy had vanished in the air.

Donald sighed again. He was perfectly aware that he wasn’t the only one suffering. His uncle Scrooge seemed to be moving heaven and earth trying to find his eldest grand-nephew, hardly even minding the expenses if it meant his nephew home safely.

Beakley had turned to keeping the family together as much as she could, knowing that she couldn’t allow them to lose hope that Huey would return.

Duckworth had become very silent. Although it was true that the ghost barely knew the boys, in the short time he knew them he had grown fond of them. Knowing that one of them was missing... left the Ghostly butler quite affected.

With regard to children... Webby kept searching maps and more maps, trying to determine possible places where Huey could be hidden. In addition to drawing a kind of network centered on Huey, his hobbies, likes, friends, enemies and, in short, all the information related to the triplet dressed in red. A commendable task, but Donald knew that it would be very difficult —maybe even impossible— for the young girl to determine the location of her missing friend by applying that search method.

And finally, Dewey and Louie. Donald knew that his nephews were probably the ones having the worst time. Well, even if they didn't admit it as openly as Huey, they all liked being triplets, and to know that one of them was missing... it was as if they were missing a part of themselves, and both ducklings were aware of that.

Donald understood that feeling perfectly. It was the same with Della. Both were twins, and when Della disappeared... Donald felt a deep emptiness that he didn't know if he could ever fill. But over time, and thanks to his nephews, Donald managed to (more or less) fill the void that Della left. Yes, his nephews saved him. Each one of them had certain attitudes, gestures, procedures, and small details that, to a greater or lesser extent, reminded him of his sister. And that made Donald feel that he hadn’t lost her at all, not while he had the children with him.

But Dewey and Louie... they needed their older brother, much more than Donald needed him. Without him, the two younger triplets seemed lost, like souls wandering aimlessly.

Speaking of his kids, maybe it wouldn't hurt to see how the boys were doing. So, the uncle went to the triplets’ room and slowly opened the door. At first, he was scared when he didn't see any of them in their own beds, but then he realized that they were both curled up and sleeping together in the older triplet’s bed. Donald couldn't help but be moved by that, it was as if Dewey and Louie felt that by sleeping there, they had their older brother closer.

It made his heart ache.

Donald closed the door again, not realizing that the two ducklings were dreaming... or rather having a nightmare, and even more incredible, they were both having the same nightmare.

* * *

_Dream_

_Huey was sitting on the floor in a small, completely dark room. His back against the wall, his legs against his chest, and arms hugging his knees underneath his chin. The triplet dressed in red seemed thinner, his cheeks looked a little sunken, as if he wasn't eating all the food he needed._

_He looked quite tired, and it was also quite clear that the boy had been crying... a lot, just as the traces of tears on his cheeks showed._

_To the dude, a bucket with a roll of toilet paper could be seen, which made brought attention to the denigrating situation in which the older triplet was in._

_Huey's head suddenly perked up when a noise was heard, like a spinning key. The boy instantly stood and approached the door, anxiously waiting for it to open. The door opened a little, allowing a thin line of light to enter the small space, but it didn’t open long enough for the duckling to squeeze through. In that space, Falcon Graves’ figure appeared. The duck looked up at the hawk with pleading eyes and said:_

_“Please let me out of here. Even if it's only five minutes.”_

_New tears were forming in his eyes as he watched Graves, waiting for an answer. The hawk looked hard at the boy, as if saying: ‘Get away or I’ll close the door again.’_

_The dressed in red duckling's eyes widened in fear and slowly backed away, allowing the hawk to enter the small space with a plate of food and a glass of water, which he left on the ground. After doing this, Graves straightened and crossed his arms looking at Huey, as if indicating that he would stay there until the boy ate._

_Huey looked at the food sadly and let out a tired sigh. After accommodating himself as best he could on the ground, he began to slowly eat what the hawk had brought him, alternating it with a sip of water from time to time. It was as if the young boy knew that this was all the food he was going to eat who knew how long, so he needed to savor it._

_When he finished eating, Graves picked up the empty plate and the glass and prepared to leave the room, but stopped when he felt a tug on his jacket. Looking down, the hawk saw Huey looking at him again with pleading eyes._

_"Please..." said the boy in barely a whisper._

_Falcon frowned and shoved the boy away, sending him staggering, but it was not enough force to make him fall._

_When Huey looked up again, he saw the door close, casting the room in darkness ones again. The duckling's beak began to shake, and new tears rolled down his cheeks. All he wanted was to get out of there and return to his family... but... every moment the boy spent there, alone, in complete darkness, he felt his hopes slowly vanish like clouds on a windy day._

_In the end Huey fell to his knees and his body fell forward, the only thing that prevented him from making contact with the ground was that he rested all the weight of the upper part of his body on his hands’ palms. And so, in that position, the duckling began to sob openly. Between sobs, the boy said with trembling, barely audible voice:_

_"Please... someone get me out of here... I don't know how long I can take it,"_

_And then he added:_

_"Uncle Donald, guys, Webby, Uncle Scrooge, Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad, Duckworth... I want to go home."_

_End of the dream_

* * *

Dewey and Louie suddenly shouted their older brother’s name, the scream was so sudden and unexpected that Donald jumped when he heard it and quickly returned to the triplets’ room to see how his nephews were.

When he saw them, they were both crying, hugging each other. Donald wasted no time and climbed to the upper bed, his boys needed comfort, they needed him.

As soon as he climbed into the upper bed, the two children threw themselves into their uncle's arms, crying, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. Donald hugged them tightly, because there was little else, he could do. He couldn't talk to them until they calmed down a bit.

The boys’ scream must’ve alert the rest of the mansion’s inhabitants, because soon all were gathered in the triplets’ room, contemplating the scene between Donald and his nephews. After a few minutes, the boys seemed to calm down enough to explain what happened. Donald broke away from them and asked:

"Boys, what happened? Are you alright?"

Dewey after drying his tears, looked at his uncle and answered:

"I... I had a nightmare about Huey, uncle Donald. He was locked in a small, completely dark room, and they wouldn't let him out of there..."

Louie suddenly added:

“And he was thinner, as if he was barely fed and it also seemed that he was crying… a lot.”

Dewey looked at his younger brother and exclaimed:

"Exactly!"

Scrooge who, until then had remained silent, suddenly spoke:

"Wait a minute, lads. Are ye saying that ye had the same dream?"

The two younger triplets looked at each other and then back to their great-uncle, answering:

"It seems."

Scrooge frowned slightly and then focused on the triplet dressed in green. He said:

"Okay, so... Louie, what happened next?"

The boy dressed in green seemed surprised by what his great-uncle asked and explained:

“A hawk opened the room’s door carrying a plate of food and water.”

Scrooge nodded and leaned forward urgently, asking:

"That hawk... how did he look like?"

Louie thought for a moment and replied:

“He was tall and muscular, brown plumage, dressed in a suit, hard look, thick eyebrows and head feathers combed back.”

After that description, Scrooge turned to his other nephew and asked:

"Does his description fit yours with, Dewey?"

Dewey nodded and replied:

"Yes, and he was Falcon Graves."

Donald raised his eyebrow and asked his uncle:

"Where do you want to go with this, Uncle Scrooge?"

The older duck looked at his nephew and patiently explained:

“I think the lads had more than a dream. What they saw was what Huey is experiencing.”

Webby eyes widened as she heard that piece of information. In an excited voice asked:

"Really? Like some sort of brotherly connection??"

Scrooge looked at his honorary niece and replied:

"I think it's quite likely, it is said that twins and triplets sometimes have a kind of link that holds them together even though they are physically apart."

Then he turned back to the two younger triplets and continued:

"It is likely that what you two saw in that dream was the result of this connection you have between you. Tell me, what happened next?”

Dewey took a deep breath and continued explaining:

"Graves gave Huey the food, and stayed there with him until he finished eating it. When he did..."

Dewey's voice went out, so Louie continued with the explanation by saying:

"Graves left the room and closed the door, leaving Huey again in the dark."

After finishing, the two children looked at each other with a worried expression, an expression that didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of those present. So, crossing her arms, Beakley asked:

"Boys... is something else going on?"

The children looked down and then Dewey said:

"Huey... he looked like if he..."

Louie took a deep breath and finished what the they both were thinking:

"He seemed about ready to give up."

Dewey thanked his brother that it was he who had concluded the explanation, and then, looking at his uncle Donald, the little duck dressed in blue said in a slightly anxious voice:

"We’ve got to hurry to find him, Uncle Donald, he needs us."

As if it were waiting for it’s cue this whole time, Scrooge's mobile phone rang at that moment. Everyone stared at the gold apparatus while he answered:

"Yes? Who is it?... Ah Gyro, wait I'll put you on speaker.”

The billionaire duck activated the speaker phone and said:

"It’s done Gyro, you can talk."

Soon the scientist's voice was heard throughout the room. The chicken explained:

_“Yes, as I was explaining to you Mr. McDuck, my intern had the idea of designing a device capable of hacking any computer system that was within a twenty-meter action’s radius. We believe that by doing this, we could discover more information about what Beaks could be hiding from us.”_

There was a sepulchral silence in the room after this explanation, until Scrooge managed to articulate:

"Gyro that's..."

Dr. Gearloose finished for him by suggesting:

_"A complete stupidity?"_

But Scrooge with an excited voice simply replied:

"No, genius! When could yeh have it ready?"

Gyro said:

_"Oh, it's ready, you just need to install it. When would you like to do it?"_

Scrooge looked at the rest of the room’s occupants, saw their determination, their readiness, and knew instantly what answer he should give. He did so by answering:

"Immediately."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here ends this chapter. Since it’s been a week since Huey’s kidnapping, I thought it’d be good to show how’s the family facing it. Also, I really wanted to put Dewey and Louie dreaming about Huey and what is he going through. I hope you liked it. If it’s so, please don’t doubt on leave a review, they’re always welcome 😊  
> Also, poor Donald, after his sister’s lost, he’s to face the possibility of lose another family member. When I first wrote this in Spanish, someone wondered how would this situation be for Donald if he hadn’t had Scrooge’s help. Imagine Donald losing Huey before he reunited with Scrooge again. He’d surely be completely lost at this point.  
> Well, as always, I want to tank to all the people who’s read this story, the ones who left kudos, put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: This_Rocks_My_Socks, Khaki_Duck, Jarod, OhGeezNotAgain, DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!


	11. Finalizing the preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I’m back again with a new chapter. Originally, I wrote this one before the chapter published last week. But after finish both, I realized that time sequence didn’t fit, so I swap them to make events order be in the right place.  
> As always, I’d like to thank empro-8 who’s helping me to edit this story. Now, enjoy the chapter 😉

It had been ten days – ten whole days! – since Beaks talked with the boy and left him locked in that small room under the watchful "care" of Falcon Graves. Beaks still wanted to wait a few more days before meeting the boy again and starting the second part of the plan. He assumed that by that time the boy's psyche would be weakened enough to be able to… play with it.

But in the meantime, Beaks had been busy going through each of his various properties’ registers. It was hardly surprising that the authorities checked those properties multiple times in case he’d decided to transfer his 'prisoner' to one of the places where they had already searched, and even made simultaneous registers on two or three of these properties. But the parrot didn't care. He knew they’d never find Huey, because the boy wasn’t in any of those buildings. There was no way they could find him.

During that time, Mark was also looking for more signs of contempt and distrust to show to the duck dressed in red. He’d found some real gold mines while reviewing the recordings in his possession. He saved all the files under a high security lock on his computer, almost impossible to hack.

All of those clips showed instanced in which Huey had been scolded, punished or belittled by some other mansion’s inhabitant. Nothing too serious or exaggerated, but given the fragile state in Mark expected him to be in when he showed him these videos, he was certain they would plant dark seeds of doubt in the boy's mind.

One of these recordings, for example, showed:

* * *

_Scene_

_Huey was sitting quietly in the dining room reading a book when Scrooge's housekeeper came out from the kitchen, who, upon seeing him, suddenly approached to him and called:_

_"Huey."_

_The boy looked up from his book at the housekeeper and replied:_

_"Mrs. Beakley, what's up?”_

_Beakley approached a couple more steps, and gave the boy dressed in red a harsh look, explained:_

_“Earlier, I passed by your room and the door was open. I saw that everything was a complete mess. You have to clean it.”_

_Huey's eyes widened, and rising from the table, he looked at the woman and replied:_

_"Yes, I know, but I-"_

_The woman crossed her arms and cut the boy saying:_

_"No buts, Huey, go tidy up your room right now."_

_Huey had his back to the entrance door from the lobby and couldn’t see it, but at that moment, his brothers appeared, and when they saw that Beakley was scolding the older triplet, they slowly and quietly turned back. It was clear that the housekeeper had seen them leave, but instead of calling them, her attention remained focused on the boy in front of her, who simply lowered his head and meekly replied:_

_"Yes, I'm going."_

_Huey left the dining room, and within a few seconds, the other two triplets entered the dining room with triumphant smiles on their faces, they had gotten out of having to tidy up their room._

_Or so they believed._

_"Dewey, Louie," the housekeeper called. The two children turned to her and, speaking at the same time, replied innocently:_

_"Yes Mrs. Beakley?"_

_The woman put her hands on her hips told the two boys:_

_"You’ll help me clean the rest of the house."_

_Both children opened their eyes wide, and their protests didn’t wait:_

_"Wait what?"_

_"Why?"_

_They seemed offended at the idea of having to help clean the whole house. Why did they have to do it? That wasn’t their job, they were part of the McDuck family, they didn't have to do housekeeping._

_Beakley looked at them both, and crossing her arms she responded to their protests by explaining:_

_“Don’t think I didn’t see how you two hid while I was speaking with your brother. Picking up the room is your daily chore too, I also know that Huey is the most orderly of the three, so come on, you’ll help me.”_

_The two children seemed to be defeated by that explanation, so they had no choice but to do what the woman told them. And they spent the rest of the day cleaning the entire mansion, much more work than they would have had if they had only to picked up their own room._

_End of the scene_

* * *

There was also this one:

* * *

_Scene_

_Webby was in Scrooge's office inspecting what appeared to be a world atlas while the rich duck was reading some kind of old document with the help of a magnifying glass._

_Suddenly the young girl looked up from the atlas and said excitedly:_

_"I think I’ve found the valley where the dragon Kilgharrah’s great lost treasure could be hidden."_

_Scrooge also looked up from what whatever he was reading, and with a huge smile replied:_

_"Very well lass, I’ve almost deciphered the entirety of this scroll that will allow us to overcome the various obstacles that we’ll encounter there."_

_Webby stood up and clasped her hands, saying to the adult duck:_

_"It’ll be a truly exciting adventure, won’t it, Mr. McDuck?"_

_Scrooge let out a soft laugh and replied:_

_"I think so lass, and if ye come, we’ll surely succeed in finding that treasure."_

_Webby's smile faltered momentarily before adding:_

_"Yes, but not just me, the boys will also help, for sure."_

_Scrooge stopped smiling, and looking away, said under his breath:_

_"Yes... some more than others, I'm afraid."_

_Webby widdened her eyes with some surprise and concern, then said:_

_"Don't say that Mr. McDuck, we all love going on adventures with you."_

_The duck with a top hat again smiled tenderly. Speaking softly, he said:_

_"I told ye lass, call me, Uncle Scrooge"_

_The girl with a bow in her hair ducked her head in embarrassment, and with some nervousness, replied:_

_"Yes... I know... Uncle Scrooge, I’m still getting used to it."_

_Scrooge kept smiling and then told the young girl:_

_"Well once we’ve got all the preparations ready, we’ll get going."_

_The joy returned to the young girl’s voice when she said:_

_"I'm looking forward to it!"_

_Scrooge laughed and rubbed her head. After that, she left the office. Scrooge watched her go and then took a watch from his coat. After looking at it, his eyes suddenly widened. Then exclaimed:_

_“Curse me kilts! I’ll be late for the meeting with the council.”_

_The duck pocketed his watch and just then, Huey appeared at the door with his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook in his hands, saying:_

_"Uncle Scrooge I wanted to talk to you-"_

_The rich duck interrupted the boy dressed in red saying hardly:_

_"Not now lad, I don't have time."_

_The boy seemed surprised by the hardness in his great-uncle's voice, but that didn't stop him from trying to insist on whatever it was that the boy wanted to say:_

_"But Uncle Scrooge, it's something related with our next adventure, I think-"_

_Again, the young boy was interrupted, Scrooge spoke even harder than before and told the boy:_

_"I've told ye that now I don't have time Huey, ye'll tell me later."_

_And with that, the adult duck briskly left the space leaving Huey behind with an expression of disappointment on his face_

_End of the scene_

* * *

And then there was one of Mark’s favorites:

* * *

_Scene_

_Donald's boat was on fire, and at that moment the sailor could be seen leaving its interior completely furious. When he reached solid ground, the duck shouted in a powerful voice:_

_"HUBERT!"_

_It wasn’t long before the mentioned duck came out the door of the mansion, his expression a mixture of surprise and fear for having been called that way. Especially with his full name, by his uncle. When the boy reached houseboat’s ramp he stood before the adult duck, he staring up with some fear while saying:_

_“Yes, Uncle Donald? What’s up?"_

_The adult duck glared at his oldest nephew and said angrily:_

_"Did you teach Dewey how to make gunpowder?"_

_The red-dressed boy's eyes widened in surprise and in a slightly nervous voice replied:_

_"Uhhh, yes... why do you ask?"_

_Donald glared at the boy, and pointedly gestured to his burning boat. The fire cackled behind him as he responded:_

_"Why do you think I ask?"_

_Huey’s eyes widened in understanding, gazing at flames bursting through the open, smoking door. The boy’s head sank between his shoulders as he asked in a small voice:_

_"Dewey has done that?"_

_Donald crossed his arms and answered his nephew saying:_

_"Obviously, and most interestingly, he told me that you taught him how to do it."_

_Huey took a couple of steps back as if he felt betrayed and tried to justify himself by saying:_

_“Dewey told me it was for a school project.”_

_Donald looked hard at the boy and asked:_

_"And you believed him?"_

_The boy with a red cap lowered his head and humbly replied:_

_"I… did."_

_His uncle closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his beak. Then, after shaking his head he opened his eyes again and said:_

_"Huey, you must be aware that what you’ve done is very wrong."_

_He closed his eyes again, and when he opened them, said:_

_"You're... grounded. You won’t leave your room until I tell you that you can."_

_The boy dressed in red raised his head quickly and speaking urgently, tried to appeal to his uncle's goodness by saying:_

_"But, Uncle Donald, this afternoon I’ve a meeting with my Junior Woodchuck group."_

_Donald shook his head and replied:_

_"Grounded without going there too, now go to your room!"_

_The boy stepped back further, and lowering his head in defeat, he answered meekly:_

_"I'm going."_

_After that, Huey disappeared inside the building, Dewey appeared on the other side and approaching the adult duck. He said:_

_"Uncle Donald."_

_The sailor-dressed duck replied:_

_"Yes Dewey?"_

_The triplet dressed in blue took a deep breath, and then asked his uncle:_

_"Why have you been so hard on him?"_

_Donald sighed and putting a hand on the shoulder of the middle triplet said:_

_"Listen Dewey, you’ve done wrong using gunpowder to... burn my boathouse, but Huey must learn that he did wrong teaching you how it was done."_

_The boy dressed in blue raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced by his uncle's reasoning, and he expressed it by saying:_

_"But I tricked him into teaching me how to do it. I don't think he deserved such an unfair grounding. You know how much he likes being a Junior Woodchuck. You haven't even grounded me."_

_Donald sighed again and said:_

_“True, I haven't grounded you yet, but as far as Huey is concerned, he must learn that the decisions he makes bring consequences.”_

_Dewey looked at the room he shared with his brother and then again at his uncle and began to say:_

_"But this grounding..."_

_Donald silenced the boy and replied:_

_“Don't worry Dewey, I know Huey well enough to know that he’ll soon learn the lesson. He won’t be grounded long. You, on the other hand, won’t go anywhere, not even on adventures with your uncle Scrooge until you help me repair everything that your fire has done to my boat.”_

_The eyes of the triplet dressed in blue widened at that uncle's statement, and then said in protest:_

_"What? But that's not fair!”_

_His uncle crossed his arms and looked at him incredulously, to which Dewey only said:_

_"... ok, yes, it is."_

_End of scene_

* * *

All of this was for now enough for Mark. Editing these videos a bit, and showing them to his... guest, he was sure that the boy would begin to doubt his family’s love for him. Soon he’d get Huey to only follow him. There was nothing that could go wrong. Except... there was perhaps a small obstacle that Beaks would have to solve, and that obstacle was Gizmoduck. That... superhero was a threat to his plans, although on the other hand... yeah, why not? Beaks was very aware of the admiration and confidence Huey felt for Gizmoduck. If he could turn that trust into a deep fear of him, then... then his revenge would be complete!

He would make Gizmoduck feel utterly desolate knowing that who was once his first and greatest fan now feared him. And it would be even worse when he realized that the same duckling just followed and obeyed the one who made him lose confidence in him the first place.

It was the perfect plan!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter doesn’t have real action, but I think that is totally necessary for what will happen in the future episodes. Now, if you liked it, don’t doubt on let a review, they’re always welcome, (and make me very happy to read them). 
> 
> As always, I want to tank to all the people who’s read this story, the ones who left kudos, put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: OhGeezNotAgain and DrummerGirl231 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	12. Phase two begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! In this chapter there are mentioned some things that will be important in the future, so you can keep an eye on it and try to realize what are those things 😉. 
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it!

Beaks arrived early the next day at the place where Huey was locked. The parrot assumed that fifteen days was more than enough to go ahead with his plan’s next phase, for which he had made several preparations for. The Waddle’s CEO got out of the car and entered the building. Once inside, he moved from room to room, preparing everything he needed.

While doing these preparations, the parrot ran into Graves, who quickly demanded explanations from Beaks as to why he hadn’t contacted him in so many days. But in his defense, Beaks couldn’t risk the police intercepting any contact between the them.

Beaks supposed that eventually he’d be considered a suspect of Huey's disappearance, what the parrot did not expect was to be scrutinized so early. Or that the police would know it was a hawk who, by chance of life, they assumed was Falcon Graves, didn’t make things easier.

Naturally, that's all Beaks told Graves when he demanded explanations. Once cleared up… everything, and having finally finished all the preparations, Beaks ordered the hawk to stay out of sight while he dealt with Huey.

The parrot then headed towards the dark room in which the older triplet was enclosed. When he got there, he stopped in front of the door. He hadn’t seen that boy for fifteen days. He could only hope that Graves had done a good job taking care of him.

After taking a deep breath, Beaks inserted the key into the lock and slowly turned it. When he finished, he opened the door completely, letting light from the outside flood the space. With a brief inspection, he soon discovered who he wanted to see.

Huey was curled up in a corner, hugging his legs and hiding his face between his knees, he seemed truly miserable and completely hopeless. The Waddle’s CEO watched him carefully. He was much thinner than the last time he saw him. Graves really did a great job feeding him just enough to keep him alive. He also saw that he was dirty, quite actually, and several feathers on his body were disheveled and discolored.

Yes, it was obvious that the boy hadn’t left the place in all that time. And the fact that Huey didn't move now that the door was completely open meant that he knew he couldn't get out of there, even if he had free passage. Graves really had done a magnificent job. The boy dressed in red was ready for the next phase.

Going deeper into the room, Beaks cleared his throat and called the duck:

"Hi Huey."

The boy's head snapped up when he heard his voice. Rising immediately, the Waddle’s CEO saw that Huey was looking at him in terror, and his face was stained with obvious traces of tears. The boy must have spent hours and hours crying. Oh, how much complacency Mark felt at the obvious fear in the child's eyes, but now he couldn’t show his satisfaction. No, he had to get the boy to believe that he really wanted to help him, so, gently, he said:

“Huey, calm down.”

The boy dressed in red shook his head and slowly backed away until his back hit the back wall. His eyes filled with tears and in a slightly husky and scared voice he whispered:

"Please no."

Beaks stepped forward while saying:

"No, no, no, you shouldn't be afraid of me Huey, I won't hurt you."

The boy closed his eyes tightly and again in a barely audible voice said:

"You’ve already hurt me..."

The boy clearly didn’t trust him, but there was the thing, this phase of the plan involved gaining the duck’s confidence, making him believe that he was the only one who wanted to help him. So, Beaks took a couple of steps and told Huey:

"No, I didn't want this to happen... I didn't expect that in my absence... they would treat you like this, I'm here to get you out of here."

The older triplet’s eyes widened in surprise upon hearing that, and something akin to hope shone in his gaze. Speaking with a mixture of hesitation and slight jubilation, the boy asked:

"Can I... go home?"

Beaks eyes widened in surprise. Back to his home? No way! How could that kid ask something like that? The CEO couldn’t allow that, he couldn’t allow the boy to leave the place and return to his _family._ If he did, all his efforts would have been useless... in addition to the fact that he would be arrested for kidnapping. No, Huey couldn’t leave. At least, not until he was sure that he’d become someone who would only obey him. And for that there was still work to be done.

But of course, he couldn't tell Huey that either, so trying to sound as friendly as possible, the gray parrot told the boy dressed in red:

"I didn't say that, I'm just going to get you out of here, from this room I mean. Come on."

Huey's countenance changed and sadness and despair returned, the boy lowered his head and looked away, refusing to look at Mark. The CEO took another step towards the boy, and it didn’t go unnoticed that with each step he took towards him, the more and more tense the duckling appeared. But it wasn’t as if it mattered, according to his plan, it was time to get the child out of there and... take care of him affectionately, showing caring and concern (something he wasn't used to). So, knelt down to the older triplet’s eye level and softly said:

"Come on Huey, don't you want to leave this room?"

The duck looked into his eyes, but still didn’t move, so Beaks reached out and grabbed the boy’s forearm. Huey stiffened, but didn’t resist, let Beaks take him where he wanted.

Gently, Beaks guided Huey out of the space in which the boy had been locked up until that moment. The poor boy had to protect his eyes from the sudden change of light, something that didn’t surprise Beaks. After being in the dark for so long, it’s normal that his eyes weren’t accustomed to even the average hall light. In fact, he almost felt sorry for him. But the boy had brought this on himself when he first refused to accept his offer.

Brushing that thought away, Beaks focused on what he should do now. And the first thing on the list was to show Huey that he cared for him. Getting him clean was top priority. The kid stank. Even just guiding Huey by the shoulder grossed Beaks out. His fingers were way to close his greasy feathers for comfort.

Once the boy was hygienically clean and well nourished, he would proceed to have a... movie session with him, and after that, he will let the boy sleep in an appropriate bed in a decent room. The reason why he first wanted him to watch the videos and then sleep, was because he hoped the doubts would be implanted in his mind, would grow and bear fruit during his lethargic sleep state. The more uncertain Huey felt about his family, the easier it would be for him to present himself as someone who wanted to help him and support him unconditionally.

Beaks walked through the building’s hallways, clutching the red-dressed triplet's arm. Unlike the last time, the boy didn’t struggle or try to free himself from the grip, rather the opposite. He followed Beaks silently and without resistance. Maybe because he feared the consequences of disobeying the gray parrot.

Beaks kept walking until he stopped in front of a door, which he opened revealing a huge and luxurious bathroom, with high windows that couldn’t be opened, but provided good lighting to the room. Huey's eyes widened in surprise at that and then looked at Mark confused. The parrot looked at him with the best smile he could put on and said:

"I thought you would like to... clean up a bit, and when you're clean I'll take you somewhere else, but don’t worry, it's not that room you've been in until now."

Huey's eyes widened even more than before; he probably didn't understand why suddenly his kidnapper was being so kind to him. But everything was planned, of course, although the boy didn't have to know that. Beaks suddenly seemed to remember something. Retrieved paper bag and that he brought with him, then pulled out a red button-down shirt and a maroon sweater. He handed the articles to the duckling explaining:

"Oh, and take this, those are clean clothes, I know you like the color red, so I've bought them in red, obviously."

Huey looked at the clothes that Beaks showed him, and extending his arms in a hesitant way. Lowering his head, he replied:

"… thanks."

Beaks told the boy to enter the bathroom, and after he entered, he closed the door to give him privacy. It wasn’t long before Beaks heard the water running, indicating that the boy had already begun to clean himself.

Leaning on the wall next to the door, the parrot took out his mobile to see the latest news related to him and his company. While doing this, Graves approached him, seeming indignant. When he was at his side, the hawk said:

"Mr. Beaks, you gave me the order to monitor and take care of that child under specific conditions, and fifteen days later you arrive and start changing everything? Why? Why this drastic change?”

The parrot turned to Falcon with a huge smile on his face, and in an animated voice replied:

“Graves, you did a great job with that kid. he's weak, physically and mentally, he's vulnerable… manipulable. What I want to get now, is that the boy is convinced that I want the best for him, that I want to help him. So, I couldn’t allow him to see me as his tormenter and his savior at the same time, don't you think?”

Graves' eyes widened slightly before say:

"... no, I guess not. Then, is my work done?"

Beaks looked the hawk straight in the eye, his smile disappeared, and then the parrot said in a serious voice:

"No, not yet."

Graves raised his arms and in an exasperated voice protested:

"Oh, come on, what else do you want me to do?"

The parrot wasn’t moved by Falcon’s outburst, but, in a calm and patient voice, explained to the hawk:

“What I plan to do next is to establish a feeling that he’ll only be safe when I’m present. I need you to watch him and… take care of him in the same way you’ve done so far every time I’m not here. But don’t worry, this time my absences won’t be so prolonged. Only about four or five days, compensated with a couple or three days that I’ll spend them here.”

Graves arched an eyebrow at Mark before asking incredulously:

"Are you serious?"

Beaks nodded and in a calm voice replied:

"Absolutely. Oh, and we’ll implement a small change.”

Graves tilted his head completely surprised, what did Beaks mean by that?

"What... exchange rate?" he asked with some apprehension.

Mark looked Graves up and down, almost as if he was inspecting him, and when he finished, he answered the hawk's question saying:

“In your clothing, whenever the boy sees you, you’ll have to wear something that he identifies as someone in his family, I want him to associate abuse with his loved ones. That will make the distrust towards his family grow, while increasing his confidence in me.”

Falcon's eyes widened in surprise and in an indignant voice he demanded:

"What?! Do you really expect me to do that?”

Mark just replied:

"I don't expect it. You will, period."

Then the gray parrot seemed to remember something, and changing his tone and his way of looking at the hawk he said:

"Just to be sure, the boy hasn't left the room at any time, has he?"

Graves let out a sigh and replied:

“No, Mr. Beaks, at first the boy asked me to leave, if it was only for a few minutes, but I didn’t allow him. And ad the days went by, he seemed to understand that he couldn’t get out. Although I opened the door, and he didn't bother asking me, he just sat there... sometimes even when I brought him food I had to make some noise to get his attention.”

Beaks smiled broadly and speaking joyfully, said:

"Excellent."

The sound of the water stopped at that moment, indicating that the duckling would soon leave the bathroom. Turning first to the door and then again to Graves, Beaks told the hawk:

"Alright, great chat. Now get going before he sees you."

The hawk let out a huge sigh, and speaking in an annoyed tone, said:

"Yes, yes, I'm leaving."

Not too long after, the bathroom door opened, revealing the completely clean triplet. All his feathers in place, dressed in the clothes that Beaks had provided and, to Mark's disappointment, the cap he always wore was placed back on his head. Beaks had hoped that, by putting on new clothes, he’d leave that ridiculous cap with his old clothes, but the boy seemed to be very attached it. He’d have to do something about that...

Quickly shaking his head to prevent the boy from noticing his disgust at still wearing the cap, the parrot smiled as best he could and said:

"Hey kiddo, you look pretty slick in those clothes. Do you like them?"

Huey didn't answer, he simply looked down and turned his head, clearly not very comfortable wearing clothes he wasn't used to. Beaks was starting to get tired of the boy not talking, so he said:

"Come on Huey, you can talk, when I met you, you were a very eloquent boy, why don't you say anything now?"

The boy looked at Beaks with fear, inhaling sharply as if he had done something wrong. Wow really seemed to be traumatized, trying to breathe calmly to gain control of himself, Huey replied:

"I-I'm s-sorry, I haven't been talking to anyone for a long time. I don't know... the clothes are... look nice... thanks."

Beaks pretended to worry about the boy and knelt down to his height, something that made Huey jump slightly. He said:

"You don't have to apologize, you haven't done anything wrong, I just want you to know that you can talk to me whenever you want, whatever you want, understand?"

Looking at the Waddle’s CEO, still afraid, the boy dressed in red nodded slowly. That was good enough for Beaks at the moment. So, standing up again, the parrot said next:

"Well, now that you're clean, come with me, I’ve got a surprise for you."

Huey's eyes widened again, he seemed confused and at the same time a little scared, so, in a trembling voice, the boy dressed in red asked:

"A surprise?"

Beaks smiled, yes, he definitely had a surprise for the boy, first he’d feed him and then show him the compilation of videos of his family, which he had carefully selected and edited. He was eager to make the boy turn against his family; it would be something truly magnificent. Taking the boy by the hand and talking with, perhaps, more enthusiasm than expected, Mark said:

"Yes, a surprise! Come on, I'm sure you'll love it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know is the second one from Beaks POV, but for the timeline to work, it was necessary to do it in that way. Originally, Donald’s chapter was in between of this chapter and the previous one. But I realized it would be better to have Donald’s chapter before the chapter where Beaks is working with Huey’s family videos. Welp have been able to find the things I mentioned? If you think so, you can leave a review naming them 😊
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: Michael_Demos, I.C.Weiner and DrummerGirl231 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> P.S. for this chapter, there’s a piece of art from an artist called Zeraggi. I haven't find out yet how to attach it here, so I leave you the links of the places where you can find it:   
> Deviantart, her nickname is Zeragii: https://www.deviantart.com/zeragii/art/Arrinconado-797542312
> 
> And also on her Tumblr @zeragii: https://zeragii.tumblr.com/post/184858211502/this-is-a-gift-for-my-long-time-online-friend


	13. New discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, sorry for the late update, tomorrow I’ve had a busy morning and until now, I haven’t had time to update. Welp, here’s the new chapter for this week! I know that probably all of you expected a continuation of the last chapter, I’m sorry, it isn’t. in the timeline I made for this story, what happens next, happens at the same time when Beaks arrived to the place where he has taken Huey, that’s why I decided put it first. Sorry if someone expected something different.   
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!  
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Fenton was currently sitting in front of his computer screen, improving the algorithm that he and Dr. Gearloose designed to break the virtual firewalls they found guarding all the data they hacked from Mark Beaks’ systems. The Hispanic duck tried hard to suppress a yawn that threatened to escape and show how tired Fenton really was. Since when was the last time the intern had slept?

Fenton couldn’t remember. But what he could remember was how happy he was when Mr. McDuck gave him the immediate approval to install the device to hack Waddle’s systems.

It was the best news he’d heard in his life. Even better than when Mr. McDuck told him he could be an official superhero. Fenton was very aware that thanks to the billionaire’s approval, they were now, almost certainly, closer to finding Huey than ever before. 

Although it was true that thanks to Mr. McDuck giving his consent to move forward, if it hadn’t been for Dr. Gearloose and his quick thinking, perhaps they’d never have managed to install the device.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Between Dr. Gearloose and Fenton, the two had managed to develop a device that would allow them to hack Mark Beaks' computer systems, which was Fenton’s idea if he was allowed to say._

_When they finished, Dr. Gearloose immediately called Mr. McDuck to tell him what he thought was a crazy plan. Not needed to say that when Scrooge gave his immediate consent to use his invention, Fenton was unable to contain himself. They were one step closer to finding Huey._

_When Mr. McDuck gave his approval to go ahead with the plan they’d outlined, Fenton immediately said the words:_

_"Blathering Blatherskite!"_

_His suit flew and covered him. Fenton smiled again, now he was ready to leave, and was about to do so when Gyro asked:_

_"Where do you think you’re going?"_

_Fenton turned and gestured to the suit as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He replied:_

_"To Waddle’s building to install the device."_

_The esteemed scientist narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, asking his intern sarcastically:_

_"Sure, and do you really expect Beaks to let you into his office and install this little device?"_

_Fenton turned completely until he was face to face with Dr. Gearloose and speaking urgently, told the scientist:_

_"But, well we have to go there."_

_Gyro sighed and shook his head, then said to the Hispanic duck:_

_“Listen to me intern, either as Fenton or as Gizmoduck, you couldn’t you enter that building without raising suspicion, the last thing we need is Beaks to discover this device. Obviously, that means I can't go there either, as Mr. McDuck's greatest scientist, I'm sure my presence on that site would be… very suspicious.”_

_Fenton's hopes began to decline, if they couldn't infiltrate Waddle, how could they find Huey? With a touch of concern in his voice, the Hispanic duck suggested:_

_"Okay then... what I can do is fly there and put it in his office window, what do you think of that solution?"_

_Again, Gyro shook his head and then replied:_

_“Too bad, for this device to work at its maximum performance, it must be as close to Beaks’ office without obstacles that impede transmission. And it’s very unlikely that no one will see you."_

_That answer didn’t please Fenton. What options were left if they couldn’t go there? Then it would be as if all their work had been useless. Speaking urgently, the Hispanic duck asked:_

_"So, what do you suggest we do then?"_

_Gyro looked at the device they had invented between he and his intern and speaking more for himself than for Fenton, said:_

_“This little gem must be installed by someone who Beaks cannot deny entry.”_

_Fenton tilted his head and in a strange voice asked:_

_"And who would that person be?"_

_The scientist smiled mischievously, and speaking in a confident voice, replied:_

_"I have someone in mind."_

* * *

_The person that Dr. Gearloose was thinking of turned out to be Fenton's mother. The Hispanic duck had to admit that the scientist was right, as a police officer, Beaks couldn’t deny entry to his mother. She really was the best candidate to install their invention. The only problem was that they had to convince her first to agree to do so, and Fenton knew that wouldn’t be a simple task._

_When the woman answered their call and showed up at the laboratory, her first response was negative, despite Gyro and her son’s insistence. And they couldn't blame her for thinking like that, because for her this was breaking the law, and as a police officer, she couldn't tolerate such an act._

_"But Mamá, please, this could be the only way to get clues that take us to Huey."_

_Fenton's mother shook her head and crossed her arms as replied:_

_"No, Pollito, I can't do what you ask, you must let the police do their job."_

_Fenton took a step toward her and began to say:_

_"But Mamá..."_

_Gyro also approached at that time and after clearing his throat, told Fenton's mother:_

_“Officer Cabrera, it's not about getting me where they don't call me, but Beaks is a pretty smart guy, not as much as I am, but obviously enough to mislead the police in case he is to blame. All we want is to have another... way to find information, but it is obvious that neither of us could get close enough to Beaks to install this device.”_

_The police officer looked at the scientist and then again at her son and asked:_

_"And for that reason, you ask me?"_

_Fenton let out a sigh and looking at his mother with pleading eyes, replied:_

_“Understand it Mamá, you're the only one who can do it.”_

_His mother's expression softened, but it was clear that she still doubted that this way of proceeding was the most appropriate or correct, and hesitantly, she began to say:_

_"Pollito, I..."_

_But her son suddenly interrupted her, clasping his hands and looking at her with pleading eyes, said:_

_"Mamá, please, I can't let that boy down, I owe him."_

_Fenton's mother tilted her head and then in a rather curious voice, asked:_

_"What do you mean you owe him?"_

_Fenton opened his eyes in shock, he’d just screwed up, what could he answer now? Babbling, the Hispanic duck began to say:_

_"I... well..."_

_Officer Cabrera adopted a worried expression and asked:_

_"What is it, Pollito?"_

_Fenton got even more nervous. What could he say? Should he confess to his mother that he was Gizmoduck? Surely, if he did, that would probably help her understand his words better. Sighing again, Fenton began to say:_

_"Mamá, I..."_

_But Gyro tried to stop him saying:_

_"You aren’t thinking to tell her, are you?"_

_Fenton closed his eyes, it didn’t matter what Dr. Gearloose said, Fenton knew that nothing was going to stop him now, so, opening his eyes to look at his mother, said:_

_"Mamá, I'm Gizmoduck."_

_Instead of showing surprise or bewilderment at what she had just heard, Officer Cabrera smiled broadly with an attitude that seemed to say: "suspicion confirmed."_

_Fenton raised an eyebrow, that was definitely not the answer he expected, so, speaking in a surprised voice, asked his mother:_

_"How come you don't seem surprised?"_

_The woman chuckled and answered her son's question:_

_“You’re my son, and I’m a police officer, it wasn’t very difficult for me to find out.”_

_And Fenton knew that his mother was right. To be honest, the Hispanic duck never managed to hide any secrets from her, because since he was a child, she knew when her son hid something from her, and always, always, always, managed to discover what was he hiding. Sometimes it was extremely frustrating. Fenton couldn't even surprise her for her birthday without her finding out._

_Shaking his head, the Hispanic duck again focused on the issue at hand and said:_

_“So… could you help us with this? You told me that you were running out of options to find Huey. This could provide some clue.”_

_Officer Cabrera let out a sigh and finally agreed, saying:_

_“Okay, I will, but I want to make it very clear that I don't agree with doing this and that although it hurts to say this, all the evidence you gather doing this won’t be valid before any court. If I do it, it’s simply because I hope it gives us some clue where the child is.”_

_Fenton smiled sadly and replied:_

_"I know, Mamá, but we wouldn't ask you if we weren't 100% convinced that this can take us to Huey."_

_Fenton's mother closed her eyes momentarily and when she opened them again, said:_

_"Okay Pollito, what do I have to do exactly?"_

* * *

_The rest of the plan was developed perfectly. Fenton's mother showed up at Waddle to announce that they had finished with the property’s registers, which was true, and that it seemed that Beaks had nothing to do with Huey's disappearance._

_On the other hand, the policewoman told Waddle’s CEO that he wasn’t ruled out as a suspect given the parrot's background with the boy, and that they would continue investigating, so they kept asking for his collaboration as soon as he was asked._

_In the middle of this meeting with Beaks, Officer Cabrera had not difficult to install the device that Gyro and Fenton had given her, and when she left Waddle, the woman quickly called her son telling him that she had successfully completed her part of the plan. Fenton thanked her and after informing Dr. Gearloose, the latter proceeded to activate the device and immediately began the arrival of all the files that device was extracting from Beaks’ servers, lots and lots of data, of which the vast majority were photos, videos, memes and the like that the Waddle’s CEO posted on his social networks._

_Seeing such a large amount of information, mostly useless, Fenton knew immediately that they had a lot of work ahead..._

_End of flashback_

* * *

The first five or six days after collecting all that information, the lab workers dedicated themselves to making a selection of what could be clues that would take them to Huey. They had to discard many, many, many files that literally considered garbage. Seriously, how could Beaks have such a large number of photos? It almost looked like a picture was taken per second, it was something really scary.

Obviously, the four workers of the McDuck’s industries technology department decided to ignore everything that came from the social networks of the Waddle’s CEO. Which meant discarding almost everything that came from the internet. It was in this selection process, discarding everything that had to do with the internet, Fenton almost ruled out access to a high security virtual box.

Fortunately, the Hispanic duck realized in time that the box wasn’t like the other files he was reviewing. That, that could be something important, could really be a clue. And after a more accurate inspection, he saw that indeed that virtual box should be something that Beaks didn’t want anyone to see, because he had it protected with a large number of firewalls, and most likely several passwords too. It would take a long time to open that box, but Fenton wasn’t willing to give up.

No, just as he had told his mother, he couldn't fail Huey. No, the boy needed him, and he was going to do everything he could to save his life, even if that meant that he had to die for the boy to was safe.

Fenton rubbed his eyes, trying to stop seeing double. Wow, he was more tired than he thought. But in his defense, it was for a good reason, so he tried to downplay it. Dr. Gearloose must have seen Fenton rubbing his eyes, because suddenly he sighed and approaching him said:

“Listen intern, although I usually admire those who do overtime despite knowing that they won’t be paid for it, I think it would be good if you rest a little. You look awful, and that’s a lot coming from me.”

Fenton turned to look at the scientist and replied:

"But Dr. Gearloose, two things, first, I... as an intern I don't charge, and second, I'm not tired, I can continue."

Gyro raised an eyebrow and in a slightly annoyed voice, said:

"Okay, the first was a saying to say, and as for the second, really?"

The Hispanic duck was quick to answer:

"Of course."

Looking at the obviously tired duck and then at the computer screen, Gyro told Fenton:

“Then explain to me all these series of meaningless numbers that you’ve written. Admit it, you don't know what you're doing anymore.”

Fenton looked at the screen on which evidently the numbers were set without tone or are, completely random and without responding to any purpose. Looking at Gyro, the Hispanic duck realized that Manny and Lil-bulb had joined the conversation. Seeing them there too, made him laugh nervously and began to say:

"I…"

The scientist rose his hand to silence his intern and interrupted:

“I know you're worried about that boy, but it won't do him any good that when the time comes, you can't even stand up. Rest a little and I’ll continue with this.”

Fenton opened his eyes in surprise. It was weird, not to say something completely unusual for Gyro to show such a degree of concern. Not that the Hispanic duck didn’t believe that Gyro didn’t care for others, he simply had never shown such a degree of what seemed to be sympathy before.

Seeing that there was nothing to do and that he was fighting in a losing battle, the Hispanic duck sighed defeatedly and told Dr. Gearloose:

"Okay."

Just then an alarm rang, indicating that the last firewall had been overcome. Fenton and Gyro looked at each other momentarily in surprise before their attention focused again on the screen. A bright green check mark was proudly displayed, which meant that... They had succeeded! They had access to the virtual box! The time had come to discover what Beaks hid.

Hands trembling in excitement, Fenton moved the mouse and opened the box, and when they began to see what was in there, their eyes widened in shock. Just as Manny's would have opened and those of Lil-bulb if they had had them… being fair, Manny had eyes, but they were made of stone and couldn’t be opened more than they were already open.

After inspecting what was in that box, Gyro looked at everyone who worked with him in the laboratory and with a determined voice said:

“We’ve to inform Mr. McDuck and his family immediately.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, as you could see, this was a Team Science chapter (I think their quite forgotten in the show, or they were when I wrote this), so I wanted to give them their moments to shine. Also, this story was written almost all of it, or all of it (I don’t remember exactly) before season 2 ending, so I didn’t know if Fenton’s mom knew her son was GIzmoduck, but being a police officer (and I thought she’s pretty amazing), I came up with the idea that if she didn’t know, at least, she suspected it, so I made her figuring it out. I hope you liked it 😊.  
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank DrummerGirl231 for her reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!


	14. Falling into darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! I forgotten to mention the last time the videos appeared, but I put a little reference from another TV show. Can anyone discover what am I talking about? If you have any idea, you can put it on the reviews. 
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

As he was led through the halls of the fake Waddle building, Huey couldn't stop wondering what was going on. What surprise had Mark prepared for him? Was it something good or something bad? If it was a bad thing, he feared what it could be, given the parrot’s mental instability. But if, on the contrary, it was a good thing... then add it to the list of unexplainable things the parrot had done since he arrived. Why was Beaks suddenly treating him so well? Why did he even give him clean clothes the same style Mark used? Huey felt so uncomfortable when he put on those clothes and saw that there were identical to that of that parrot. He still had his hat, though. At least having that complement characterized him, made him feel a little less weird. Why did Beaks make him dress that way? What kind of game was he playing now?

And even though the CEO assured him that he’d never wanted the duckling to suffer the way he’d suffered, Huey couldn’t abandon the idea that although Beaks said he didn’t know it, he did suffered under Falcon’s hands, who worked for Beaks, so, ultimately, the boy had suffered because of Mark Beaks. In the triplet’s opinion, the ignorance of a fact doesn’t exempt you from its responsibility.

But Huey was afraid to say that to the grey parrot, because with how volatile the mood of the adult bird was. He feared one wrong word would get him locked up again, and Huey didn't want that. He didn't want to go back to absolute darkness and isolation. That room in which, surely, he was in at least several days, or weeks, maybe even months... and Falcon... hadn’t made his stay there enjoyable. Speaking of the hawk, where had he gone? Was hiding behind some corner, ready to spring out and hurt Huey more? Huey hoped with all his might that he didn't. He had spent too much time tormented by what Falcon could do to him.

To tell the truth, now that he thought about it, Huey didn't even know how much time had passed since his kidnapping. All he knew was that he’d spent the whole time alone, in the dark room... thinking about that place made the boy close his eyes tightly and began to shake, something that didn't go unnoticed by Mark.

The Waddle’s CEO suddenly stopped, which caused Huey to also stop. Peaking an eye open, Huey saw that Beaks was looking at him with what seemed to be concern. Was the parrot really worried about him?

Then Mark crouched down, which caused in response that Huey involuntarily recoiled.

Beaks didn't seem bothered by the duck's reaction. But Huey was still on constant alert, he didn't want to make his kidnapper angry again. He didn't want to see him again with that hateful expression with which directed looked at him just before locking him up. Looking at the Waddle’s CEO with his eyes wide open, the duckling spoke tremblingly:

"I-I'm sorry."

Beaks tilted his head and asked:

"Sorry for what?"

The duckling closed his eyes and lowered his head, then speaking again hesitantly, said:

"For... ha-have moved away."

Beaks then put a hand on his shoulder, making Huey feel a chill running down his back. If Beaks realized that or not, Huey didn’t know. The only thing that the duck was aware, was what the Waddle’s CEO told him next:

"You don't have to apologize for that. I know you don't like me very much, but I just want you to know that I'm trying to help you, okay?"

Huey raised his head and looked at Beaks confused. The more time it spent the less he understood. Huey didn't trust his voice to give an answer, so he simply nodded. Beaks on the other hand smiled, and standing up, said:

"Well then, let's not waste any more time and let's eat."

Huey's eyes widened in surprise, and speaking incredulously, asked:

"To… eat?"

This time it was Beaks' eyes that opened, and speaking with a slight tone of disappointment, the parrot then said:

"Oh my, it has escaped me. That was the surprise I’d prepared for you, a great and succulent meal."

Huey couldn't take it anymore. He needed to know what Beaks was up to, so even with a hint of fear that Beaks was enraged by asking that, spoke next asking the following question:

"Why are you doing this?"

Mark separated from him slightly surprised and speaking in a tone that sounded like he was genuinely worried, the parrot said:

“What do you mean why? I'm worried about how thin and pale you are Huey, so I thought you should be very hungry and have prepared a good and abundant meal, just for you.”

Huey opened his eyes in shock, he could barely believe what he was hearing, and the fact that his stomach decided to make noises indicating that he should accept that offer didn’t help him recover sooner. In a broken voice, the boy muttered:

"I-I don't know what to say."

Mark let out a soft laugh that surprised the duckling in red again, and then, the Waddle’s CEO said:

"You don't need to say anything, just come with me so you can eat."

Huey nodded softly and let Beaks lead him through the halls of that building again. Upon entering the dining room, the eyes of the older triplet widened. Given the boy's hunger, he feared that all this was nothing more than a dream, a hoax of his subconscious making him believe that he was going to quench his appetite days.

Mark then urged Huey to sit in a chair and then said:

"You can eat as much as you want from what's on this table, come on, go ahead."

Huey couldn’t believe it, there was much more food there than he could eat in his life. And everything seemed so appetizing... with some hesitation, he took something from one of the trays and started eating it... no this wasn’t a dream. He’d read that in dreams you don't notice the taste of the food you eat, and this meal was really delicious, Huey wasn’t dreaming. Livelier now, he continued eating, catching a little here and there, all this while Beaks watched him.

Beaks’ gaze made him feel uncomfortable, but he ignored that feeling it and focused on nourishing his body with all the food that he had been deprived of these last days. Besides, actually... he didn't want Beaks to leave. He didn't want to be alone... not again.

When he finally felt that he could no longer eat anything else, Huey gently pushed the plate away from him, indicating to Beaks that he’d finished. Then the boy sat there, his face saddened. Beaks must have noticed, because suddenly asked:

“What's the matter with you Huey? Is it that the food wasn’t good?”

The boy dressed in red looked at Waddle's CEO with his eyes wide open and hurried to answer:

"What? Oh no, it's not that, everything was very tasty, it's just that…”

He said the last part looking away, and Huey could feel that Beaks was looking at him, waiting for him to finish, but how to tell him? The parrot suddenly asked:

"What’s up?"

Huey closed his eyes tightly and whispering replied:

“I’d like to return with my family.”

He knew that Beaks had heard him, because instantly, the parrot straightened and said:

"I understand... but I can't let you go."

Huey looked at Beaks with the bright eyes of unshed tears, and then tremblingly begged:

"Why not? Please, I promise that I won’t say anything to anyone. Nobody will know that it was you who kidnapped me, sir.”

Huey's hopes vanished almost completely when Beaks shook his head, indicating that he wasn’t going to give in. Then, Waddle’s CEO said:

“First, you don’t need to speak to me so formally Huey, secondly, I’d love to let you go, but I can't, although I can do something else. -In fact, I thought you’d like to see your family, so it happened that I’ve recovered some of the videos in which they appear, from when I hacked the mansion’s security system. I still… haven't had time to watch those videos. But if you want, we can watch them together. Are you okay doing that?”

He said the last part looking at Huey with a smile. Huey didn’t understand why, but Beaks seemed really anxious to him agreeing to watch those videos, and afraid of what could happen if he said no, the duck replied:

"… I… suppose."

Beaks' smile widened even more and with an enthusiastic voice, the parrot said:

"Okay then, movie night! Let’s go."

And quickly, Mark led him to a room where there was already a projector and a laptop set up. Beaks made Huey sit in one of the chairs that was also there and turning on the devices, began to play the videos:

* * *

_Scene_

_Webby was in Scrooge's office inspecting what appeared to be a world atlas while the rich duck was reading some kind of old document with the help of a magnifying glass._

_Suddenly the young girl looked up from the atlas and said excitedly:_

_"I think I’ve found the valley where the dragon Kilgharrah’s great lost treasure could be hidden."_

_Scrooge also looked up from what whatever he was reading, and with a huge smile replied:_

_"Very well lass, I’ve almost deciphered the entirety of this scroll that will allow us to overcome the various obstacles that we’ll encounter there."_

_Webby stood up and clasped her hands, saying to the adult duck:_

_"It’ll be a truly exciting adventure, won’t it, Mr. McDuck?"_

_Scrooge let out a soft laugh and replied:_

_"I think so lass, and if ye come, we’ll surely succeed in finding that treasure."_

_Webby's smile faltered momentarily before adding:_

_"Yes, but not just me, the boys will also help, for sure."_

_Scrooge stopped smiling, and looking away, said under his breath:_

_"Yes... some more than others, I'm afraid."_

_Scrooge suddenly smiled and then told the young girl:_

_"Well once we’ve got all the preparations ready, we’ll get going."_

_The joy returned to the young girl’s voice when she said:_

_"I'm looking forward to it!"_

_Scrooge laughed and rubbed her head. After that, she left the office. Huey appeared at the door with his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook in his hands, saying:_

_"Uncle Scrooge I wanted to talk to you-"_

_The rich duck interrupted the boy dressed in red saying hardly:_

_"Not now lad, I don't have time."_

_The boy seemed surprised by the hardness in his great-uncle's voice, but that didn't stop him from trying to insist on whatever it was that the boy wanted to say:_

_"But Uncle Scrooge, it's something related with our next adventure, I think-"_

_Again, the young boy was interrupted, Scrooge spoke even harder than before and told the boy:_

_"I've told ye that now I don't have time Huey, ye'll tell me later."_

_And with that, the adult duck briskly left the space leaving Huey behind with an expression of disappointment on his face._

_End of the scene_

* * *

Huey felt his eyes get wet when he saw that, he remembered that day. He’d gone to see his great-uncle to tell him that he’d found a text that told the story of the treasure and the dragon that they were going to search for at their next adventure. But the old duck ignored him. What the older triplet didn’t know, was that Webby had been with his great-uncle shortly before and that he’d treated her sweetly while he spoke him with contempt and almost like a hindrance.

Had he been referring specifically to him when he talked about his brothers and himself? But if Huey struggled to give his best in every adventure they went to. And Webby... why didn't she say anything? Weren't they friends? Why didn't she defend them? Did she think like his great-uncle?

The boy closed his eyes tightly trying to prevent tears from falling down his face... he didn't want to look weak...

_"Huey"_

The boy opened his eyes again and looked up when he heard his name, and saw that it was another video that was being played:

* * *

_The boy looked up from his book at the housekeeper and replied:_

_"Mrs. Beakley, what's up?”_

_Beakley approached a couple more steps, and gave the boy dressed in red a harsh look, explained:_

_“Earlier, I passed by your room and the door was open. I saw that everything was a complete mess. You have to clean it.”_

_Huey's eyes widened, and rising from the table, he looked at the woman and replied:_

_"Yes, I know, but I-"_

_The woman crossed her arms and cut the boy saying:_

_"No buts, Huey, go tidy up your room right now."_

_Huey had his back to the entrance door from the lobby and couldn’t see it, but at that moment, his brothers appeared, and when they saw that Beakley was scolding the older triplet, they slowly and quietly turned back. It was clear that the housekeeper had seen them leave, but instead of calling them, her attention remained focused on the boy in front of her, who simply lowered his head and meekly replied:_

_"Yes, I'm going."_

_Huey left the dining room._

_End of the scene_

* * *

Huey's eyes were open in disbelief, Mrs. Beakley had watched his brothers enter the dining room and then leave, and said nothing to them? Why? The boy also remembered that day, he had to pick up the whole room alone, and that 98% of the disorder that was there, was his brothers’ work, not his. Huey spent almost all afternoon collecting.

Huey felt the tears flow from his eyes, and this time, he did nothing to prevent them from flowing freely. Why was Beaks showing him all that? A new video began to play before his eyes:

* * *

_Scene_

_Dewey entered the room where Louie was watching television, he'd a frown and his hands were clenched into fists. Marching to the sofa, the boy dropped into the cushions, next to his brother._

_The boy in a green sweatshirt looked momentarily at the other duck before turning his attention back to the program he was watching. When Dewey still didn’t say anything, Louie sighed and asked:_

_"Come on Dewey, it’s obvious that you're furious. Want you to tell me what’s bothering you?”_

_The boy dressed in blue looked at his brother and with a frown and asked:_

_"Aren't you fed up with Huey organizing the whole day for us?"_

_The boy in green shrugged and replied:_

_"To be honest, maybe a little bit. I’d mostly rather sit and watch TV instead of doing any of the activities Huey has planned.”_

_Dewey breathed a tired, then said with clear frustration:_

_"I don't know Lou, sometimes I think Huey thinks he is better than us just because he's the oldest."_

_His brother seemed to agree, because he soon responded:_

_"I agree... it's like he thinks that being the oldest gives him the right to order us around like a sergeant or whatever."_

_Dewey moved to face his brother and then said while almost shouting:_

_"Just because he was born three seconds before me, that doesn’t make me his slave! He doesn’t have the right to tell me what to do."_

_Louie rose his eyebrows, alarmed at his brother. He asked:_

_"You seriously think Huey considers us his slaves?"_

_The response was not long in coming:_

_"Yes."_

_End of the scene_

* * *

Huey couldn't help letting out an astonishment scream at what he’d just heard, he knew that he was now crying openly, but he didn't care. Was that what his brothers thought of him? Seeing those images for Huey was like a knife in his heart. He felt betrayed.

Between tears, the duck saw that a new video was beginning. Huey didn't really want to see it, but he realized that he couldn't take his eyes off the screen when he saw who appeared on it:

* * *

_Scene_

_Donald's boat was on fire, and at that moment the sailor could be seen leaving its interior completely furious. When he reached solid ground, the duck shouted in a powerful voice:_

_"HUBERT!"_

_It wasn’t long before the mentioned duck came out the door of the mansion, his expression a mixture of surprise and fear for having been called that way. Especially with his full name, by his uncle. When the boy reached houseboat’s ramp he stood before the adult duck, he staring up with some fear while saying:_

_“Yes, Uncle Donald? What’s up?"_

_The adult duck glared at his oldest nephew and said angrily:_

_"Did you teach Dewey how to make gunpowder?"_

_The red-dressed boy's eyes widened in surprise and in a slightly nervous voice replied:_

_"Uhhh, yes... why do you ask?"_

_Donald glared at the boy, and pointedly gestured to his burning boat. The fire cackled behind him as he responded:_

_"Why do you think I ask?"_

_Huey’s eyes widened in understanding, gazing at flames bursting through the open, smoking door. The boy’s head sank between his shoulders as he asked in a small voice:_

_"Dewey has done that?"_

_Donald crossed his arms and answered his nephew saying:_

_"Obviously, and most interestingly, he told me that you taught him how to do it."_

_Huey took a couple of steps back as if he felt betrayed and tried to justify himself by saying:_

_“Dewey told me it was for a school project.”_

_Donald looked hard at the boy and asked:_

_"And you believed him?"_

_The boy with a red cap lowered his head and humbly replied:_

_"I… did."_

_His uncle closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his beak. Then, after shaking his head he opened his eyes again and said:_

_"Huey, you must be aware that what you’ve done is very wrong."_

_He closed his eyes again, and when he opened them, said:_

_"You're... grounded. You won’t leave your room until I tell you that you can."_

_The boy dressed in red raised his head quickly and speaking urgently, tried to appeal to his uncle's goodness by saying:_

_"But, Uncle Donald, this afternoon I’ve a meeting with my Junior Woodchuck group."_

_Donald shook his head and replied:_

_"Grounded without going there too, now go to your room!"_

_The boy stepped back further, and lowering his head in defeat, he answered meekly:_

_"I'm going."_

_After that, Huey disappeared inside the building._

_End of scene_

* * *

Huey's hands were clenched into fists, everything he’d seen so far had been like betrayals. But this was the one that hurt Huey the most. His own uncle, the person who raised and cared for him for years, he had also injured him. What his uncle had done, although it might seem like a normal and fair punishment to anyone else, to Huey, who was still recovering from weeks of isolation and emotional turmoil, it felt like the worst attack. Because on that occasion his uncle had taken away something Huey truly loved.

Huey's beak trembled, and he couldn't do anything to prevent soft sobs from escaping him. Everything he had seen... was that what his family really thought of him? No, it couldn't be true. It had to be a farce, a Beaks’ trick to achieve its purpose, and yet those videos... Huey didn't know what to think. He was confused, tired and his head hurt. Under such conditions he was unable to find the answer to his dilemma.

The duckling cried inconsolably. His body trembled, aggravating his headache. But he could do nothing to avoid it. A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder, and Huey knew immediately that it was Beaks. The parrot moved around the duck to face him, and then... hugged him.

Huey didn’t resist or move away, just stood quiet, letting Mark wrap him in his arms and give him the comfort he needed so much at that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really sorry for Huey, Beaks is a real monster for doing this to him. He doesn’t deserve any of this. Welp, did anyone discovered the reference I was talking about? You can comment it. Also, did someone realized the clothes Beaks gave to Huey were the same style of clothes Beaks always use? I remember I told somewhere those clothes weren’t as innocent as they seemed. Guess you know why now.
> 
> Okay, I hope you liked it 😊.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and yeetus159 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	15. Is this Beaks’ plan?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! Had anyone realized about the reference I put in the previous chapter? If you didn’t don’t worry, the reference is from a show named Merlin from BBC. In this chapter, this time we’ll get back on how Huey’s family is facing all this situation.
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Dewey and Louie were hunched in the living room with the television blaring loudly in front of them. But in fact, neither of the brothers seemed to be paying any real attention to the broadcasted program. They were blankly staring, the screen serving as a shallow distraction from the real issue. How could they pay attention anyway, knowing that their brother was missing and undergoing torments like the ones they had seen in their sleep? No one would have to go through that, especially not their oldest brother. 

Uncertainty constantly turned over every though on their minds. What did the people who abducted him want from their brother?

Webby then entered the room. When she saw them, her fragile mood also faded further. Webby had tried to maintain an optimistic attitude. But over the days, that task had become more difficult, to the point where even she herself was beginning to lose hope of finding her friend. 

Webby had been researching on her own, but so far there was nothing but dead ends. Lena even volunteered to come up with ideas (some of which were a bit crazy) of what might have happened to the red-dressed duckling. Webby appreciated the help, but unfortunately it was completely useless too. And the young girl with a bow no longer knew where to search, she had run out of clues. All she had were many questions, but no answers.

She was stuck, which made her suffer and also made her feel worthless. But just by looking at the other two triplets, Webby immediately realized that they were suffering more than anyone else in the mansion. After their dream, Dewey and Louie's mood had reached incredibly low limits. But Webby didn't know how to help her friends, she didn't know how to make them feel better. She didn't... she didn't know what to do.

The young girl with the bow in her hair suddenly heard the younger duckling sigh before asking:

"How do you think he’d be?"

The question was obviously directed to Dewey, not her, so Webby was glad she didn't have to give her opinion on that very delicate matter. The middle triplet looked at his brother and in a voice that was a mixture of sadness and tiredness, asked:

"You mean Huey?"

Louie seemed to be upset, because looking at the boy in blue, he then spoke indignantly:

"Who else could it be!?"

Dewey raised his hands as a sign of surrender and speaking with a slight alarm in his voice, hurried to answer:

"Eh, calm down Lou... I just..."

Louie seemed to calm down instantly, and looking away in embarrassment, admitted:

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just... I don't want to, but I can't stop imagining all the stuff Huey might be going through. How can anyone do something like this to him?"

Dewey sighed and, in a sad voice, answered his little brother:

"I don’t know Louie, but until we have a clue where he could be, we can't help either."

Louie's face took on an even more bitter expression than before and miserably, the younger of the brothers spoke again more to himself than to his brother:

"And while he is suffering and going through who knows what tortures."

Dewey also looked down. The television program they were supposedly watching was completely forgotten, and then the triplet dressed in blue said:

"I know, believe me. I’d love to be able to go right now wherever our brother is and get him out of there."

Webby was startled when she suddenly heard a sniff from Louie. She looked and saw that he had tears in his eyes and seemed to be trying his best to avoid crying. Then, speaking in a trembling voice, the duckling in a sweatshirt said:

"I just want him to come home."

Dewey looked at his younger brother, and Webby noticed that he too had tears in his eyes, although unlike Louie, the medium-sized triplet seemed to be more successful at controlling his emotions. The middle brother then ran his hand over the shoulders of the younger triplet and, speaking sympathetically, tried to calm Louie:

"Me too, I get feathered toe just thinking about how he must be feeling now, alone and apart from us."

Webby couldn't bear it anymore, she decided it was time to let the two brothers know she was there. Witnessing their pain and their fears, so the young girl said:

"I... I'm also worried about what might be happening to Huey."

The two brothers spun around, obviously not knowing she was listening. The two little ducks asked at the same time:

"Webby?"

Wiping away his tears, the Louie asked nervously:

"How long have you been there?"

Webby assumed her friend would be embarrassed knowing that she had seen him cry. So, going against her principles, the girl hid... partially how much she actually knew:

"Oh, not much... just to see how worried you are about Huey. Something I understand and that while sure not as much as you, I also worry how he can be now."

The two brothers looked at each other momentarily and glanced back at Webby, the triplet in blue then said:

"Oh Webby, we know you care about our brother too. He's also your friend, just like us."

The young girl sighed and looking at the floor replied:

"I know, but you are brothers..."

Jumping from the sofa in a hurry, Dewey approached the girl and placing a hand on her shoulder said:

"And you, although not of blood, are also our sister, it’s normal that you’re also extremely worried about Huey, it would be stupid to think otherwise."

Webby looked up and smiled sadly looking at the middle triplet, then inhaled to speak again, but was interrupted because at that moment the doorbell rang. Who could it be? What did they come to? Could it be…? Could it be someone who brought news of Huey?

Within moments, they were all running straight to the door to see who had just arrived. The ducklings were surprised to see that Donald was already at the door opening to see who was there. How could he get there so fast? Had he had the same thought as them? 

Out of the corner of her eye, Webby realized that the rest of the manor inhabitants were also approaching the hall. It was clear that everyone had undoubtedly hoped the same.

When the door opened, Gyro appeared with Lil-bulb on his shoulder and Manny and Fenton both sides of Scrooge’s main scientist. Webby was surprised when she saw the Hispanic duck. He seemed to be very, very, very tired. Had he not slept trying to find Huey? Did he know the triplet dressed in red? Were they friends? Now that she remembered, for a while, Huey left the mansion almost daily saying he was going to visit a friend at the hospital. Was that duck the friend referred to by the older triplet?

He probably was, because now that she remembered it, that duck was also there when the whole Waddle incident, and she, Dewey and Louie saw in the news how an ambulance took him. Huey was also there; he saw in the first person how they took him. Probably, and being the kind of person Huey was, he worried about that duck and the friendship was born from that fact and from visiting him. Webby, granddaughter of a spy, guessed all of this with a single glance. What Webby couldn’t guess was that that duck also worked for Scrooge. 

Speaking of the billionaire duck, he pushed his way to the front of the group and said:

“Gyro! What are ye all doing here?”

The scientist inhaled slowly and replied:

"Mr. McDuck, we’ve come because we’ve made an important and worrisome discovery. We think that, given the seriousness of the situation, it was best to come and show you my—err, our findings in person.”

Mr. McDuck stepped back, encouraging others to break through while saying to newcomers:

"Okay, come in. Tell us what ye know, quickly."

And so, they entered and went all to the living room where they were told to sit down. After being all settled, Gyro began to explain:

“Well, after informing you of the device we invented, we managed to install it in Beaks’ office. The details of how we did it are unnecessary. The device allowed us access to his files. The vast majority of them could be classified as garbage, but my intern managed to find a highly secured virtual box. It seemed that Beaks didn’t want anyone to see what he was hiding there. So, we’ve invested all our efforts in opening that box until, finally today, we’ve succeeded.”

Being the family’s head, and knowing that everyone seemed scared to ask the question, Scrooge was the one who expressed what everyone internally questioned:

"And what... was inside that box?"

Fenton was the one who answered that question:

“What we’ve found there in the first place is a contract, a contract in the name of Hubert Duck. Apparently, Beaks wanted him to sign it.”

Donald got up instantly and shouted:

"What? Have my nephew sign a contract? But he is a minor! That would be illegal!”

Scrooge got up too and putting a hand on his shoulder, tried to calm the exalted duck:

"Calm down Donald, I guess Beaks didn't take that into account."

Then he turned to his scientist and then asked:

"What else did ye find Gyro?"

The headless horse Manny hit the ground a few times. Webby hadn’t yet fully learned the language the horse used to communicate, but that didn't matter, for now, since Gyro did seemed to have understood him perfectly. He responded:

"Yes, yes Manny, I know. What we also found there, was a lot of information on how to do something called coercive persuasion, or as people call it vulgarly, brainwashing."

Webby jumped in surprise when was her granny suddenly exclaimed furiously:

"What?! Are you trying to tell me that they want to brainwash a ten-year-old boy? In all my years as a spy I’d never seen such an act of cruelty against someone.”

Gyro looked at the housekeeper with a neutral expression and replied:

“As hard as it sounds, that's a part of what we’ve found.”

Slightly worried, Webby leaned forward and asked hesitantly:

"What do you mean with that?"

The scientist replied:

"Because apart from all this information, we also fond videos of this mansion’s security cameras."

Instantly all the inhabitants of the mansion jumped at the same time exclaiming:

"What?!"

Fenton spoke then explaining:

"Yes, apparently, Beaks hacked the system and got several recordings."

Dewey leaned back at the place where he was sitting and spoke confusedly:

“I don't understand how that has anything to do with anything.”

Gyro turned to the middle triplet and, speaking annoyedly, said:

“The relationship, young one, is that, in all the videos that we’ve seen that Beaks has in that space, are videos in which somehow hat-boy is misunderstood, punished, despised or lectured, for some reason or another. Sermons and the punishments are obviously justified, but, there was also a folder in which those same videos were, but modified.”

Donald opened his eyes in fear and asked apprehensively:

"Modified?"

Fenton looked at the sailor-dressed duck and explained sadly:

“Yes, it seemed as if Beaks just wanted it to be seen that Huey was treated as a hindrance, someone… despicable in certain aspects or as if he didn’t deserve to be taken into account. Under normal conditions, someone with a strong mind would watch these videos and nothing would happen, but... if they previously managed to weaken the person enough..."

Gyro then took the word and finished:

“The subject would then be more susceptible to believe that what he’s seeing is the truth. He wouldn’t have a clear enough mind to make critical judgments about what is being shown to him.”

Scrooge became keenly interested in that point of the conversation, and with an intrigued voice, asked:

“Did you say weaken him? How exactly?”

Fenton was the one who responded again, and did so by explaining:

“According to the research that Beaks had done, this weakening can be achieved by completely isolating the person. Enclosing him somewhere without contact with anyone and also with psychophysical weakening that consists of a physical person’s weakening who also takes him to a psychic weakening that makes him…”

The Hispanic duck fell silent when he saw the mansion inhabitants’ expressions, it was as if what he was explaining to them, they already knew or had seen it in some way, so strangely he asked:

"What’s up? Why do you put those faces?”

Webby looked at the two younger triplets, who had looked away, completely distressed. Then turning to the adult duck answered for them:

"The other day, Dewey and Louie dreamed with Huey. They said he was locked in a room, completely dark, that he was thin and that they wouldn't let him out of there, for nothing in the world."

Dewey looked up suddenly and speaking hesitantly, said:

"Another thing we didn't say then, was that they didn't talk to him either, it was as if they didn't want him to have a conversation with anyone."

The Hispanic duck's eyes flew open and more than for himself than for the others present, said:

"But if it was just a dream..."

Dewey stood up suddenly and facing Fenton, shouted at him in protest:

"We both had it at the same time and seeing exactly the same!"

Fenton stepped back in surprise, but at the same time an expression of understanding began to form on his face. Then, taking a hand under the beak, he spoke thoughtfully:

"If that is what is happening to Huey, that means Beaks has implemented his plan."

A new voice sounded at that moment, a weak and trembling voice, which, with a barely audible volume, asked:

“Do… do you really think that is what they want to do to my brother? Brainwashing him?”

Gyro inhaled and in a neutral voice, replied:

“Unfortunately, yes, and another thing that we found confirms it to us. It seems that this parrot intends to follow up on the brainwashing process in that boy. I suppose to document how effective it has been or what measures he should take into account for future occasions, setbacks that may arise-”

"Enough!"

Webby saw that Dewey looked down after that scream. His hands clenched into fists began to shake. _Oh, oh_ _that couldn't be a good sign_ , which was confirmed when the middle triplet looked up again looking at Gyro with obvious fury and practically yelled at him:

"Okay, you came here to tell us what they are doing to Huey. But do have any clue of where he is?!"

Gyro frowned and looking at the boy dressed in blue, replied hardly:

“Hey boy, we do everything we can to help, I’ve several projects that have been set apart, _forgotten_ , just to focus on this and, unfortunately not. We don't have a single clue where that boy can be. Not yet at least, but we’ll continue looking. You don’t have the slightest doubt about that.”

Trying to sound optimistic, Webby turned to the lab workers and said:

“But, with what you’ve found, that confirms to us that it’s Beaks who has kidnapped Huey, doesn’t it? Now we can go to the police and show them-”

Fenton cut Webby by shaking his head and saying:

"I'm afraid that won't be possible."

Faced with Fenton, Donald asked with a slight touch of despair in his voice:

"Why not?"

Fenton looked away and adopting a posture of utmost sadness, replied:

“My mother was the one who installed the device, but she already told us that everything we obtained from here couldn’t be recorded as evidence since it had been obtained illegally. The only thing we can do is continue to investigate and find a clue that reveals Huey's location.”

Although it was sideways, Webby saw Louie's eyes suddenly open. He seemed to be thinking about something. Focusing more on the younger triplet, the girl with a bow proved that indeed, the young boy in a sweatshirt was thinking about something. Moreover, whatever Louie was thinking, he soon expressed it by saying thoughtfully:

"Location? Location... location... "

Unable to take it anymore, the girl suddenly asked her friend:

"Louie, what's up?"

The duckling in a sweatshirt looked at his friend and explained:

"It's just that... it just occurred to me, I don't know him much, but from what I've seen, Beaks seems to be phone-dependent, if that device you've said has hacked all the parrot’s gadgets, that means it has also hacked his mobile, hasn’t it?”

Scrooge was also interested in what Louie was saying, so he asked:

"Where are ye going with this, lad?"

The youngest triplet, turned to his great-uncle and continued his explanation:

"Maybe if Beaks doesn’t tell us where Huey is, then his cell phone will, if we are able to locate him by means of the GPS signal, that in case he has it on."

Gyro's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing that and speaking surprisedly, told Louie:

"Hey that... it's actually a great idea. How did it not occur to me before?"

Smiling mischievously, Scrooge looked at the scientist and replied:

“Don’t worry Gyro, it happens to the best.”

Fenton suddenly stood up and, speaking excitedly:

"Okay then, we’ve to get down to work immediately, let's go back to the lab and-"

But he was cut by Gyro who replied:

“You go home intern.”

Fenton opened his eyes in shock and tried to protest:

"What? But Dr. Gearloose I…”

Gyro raised a hand and interrupted:

“No buts. Do you remember our last conversation? Stay in force, so go and rest.”

Fenton's eyes widened even more than before and then lowered his head in distress and replied:

"Yes Dr. Gearloose... let me know if you find anything."

Gyro nodded and responded in turn:

"I will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that’s all for now, I like to write from Webby’s point of view, she’s very nice. Also, I when I started this story, I had the feeling I was forgetting Louie a little bit, so I tried to give him a shining moment, Dewey’ll have his moments to, but in this occasion, I thought something like this would come from Louie more from Dewey. I hope you liked the idea he had. And about this idea. Do you think it’ll help them to find Huey? Let me know what do you think about it.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!  
>    
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	16. Clarifications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! this week I’m updating before than I use to since tomorrow, I’ll have a busy day and I don’t know if I would be able to update. For this chapter, I wanted to try a new point of view in this chapter. It was kind of funny to write this character, so I hope you’ll like it.  
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

From the corner where Graves was hiding, the falcon couldn't believe what he was seeing. The boy he’d been watching for past fifteen days was now allowing Beaks to hug him. How was that possible? From the beginning it was very clear that this duckling hated Waddle’s CEO. Why now would he let himself be comforted by him? At first Graves thought the boy did it out of fear, but his posture, his... peace of mind at Mark's gesture made him realize that his acceptance of that hug was totally and absolutely genuine, that couldn’t be the result of fear.

To be honest, the hawk had a hard time believing that the boy dressed in red had been so affected after seeing the videos that Beaks showed him. It could be told immediately that the parrot had modified each and every one of those videos or simply cut them at the point where he was interested. How could that kid with a cap not realize that?

But then, Falcon remembered what Beaks had said. The boy was tired. Physically and mentally exhausted, thanks to _his_ work in caring for him. In that state of fatigue, it was logical to think that the boy had a harder time distinguishing subtle details that showed what he had just seen was falsehood.

Graves sighed, in these last days, his emotions hadn’t been the most positive in the world. He was angry, upset, furious... in the time that passed from Beaks left until he returned, the falcon had been almost as trapped as that duckling. The difference between both was that Graves could go wherever he wanted from the building. If he needed to go out to get supplies, he could do it, no problem. Although the first civilization point was quite far from their location, which meant a long car ride to get there. But at least Graves could go out. And besides, he’d access the internet, always using fake accounts so nobody could obviously track him. But nothing he could do was enough, and that frustrated him. So, Graves took out all his frustration on Huey, since technically, it was the boy's fault that they both ended up in that situation.

If the boy had accepted Beaks’ offer from the beginning, neither would have been forced to stay here. But the boy just had to be stubborn and decline. Two weeks was way longer than the falcon had planned for this job.

Honestly, he thanked Beaks for coming, because he didn’t know if he could take the monotony of babysitting much longer without hearing from his employer. The falcon still remembered, for example, what happened the first day he went to bring food to the boy.

The moment he opened the door, he made the mistake of swinging it wide open, giving the boy a free path to run away, to the falcon’s surprise. Falcon immediately dropped the plate and the glass and launched himself to chase the duckling. It didn't take long to catch him. And despite the boy's pleas, Graves locked him up again. After making sure that the boy wouldn’t escape, he took the decision to deprive him of food until the next day as punishment for his escape attempt. But that... was something that his employer didn’t need to know about, after all. The duckling was hardly out three minutes.

Since then, every time Graves went to see the boy, he opened the door just a little, to make sure the boy couldn’t leave. In the early days, he constantly had to wait for Huey to move away or look hard at him since he couldn’t speak to him. As time went by, the boy came to understand that no matter how much the door opened, he wasn’t allowed to get out of there. So, after the first week, the boy simply stopped trying, even asking questions. Another time, which was apparently extremely bitter for the boy, was the moment when Graves brought him the bucket and toilet paper where the boy had to do his needs. The falcon wasn’t surprised at all at the boy’s horrified expression, as if he couldn’t give credit to what he was seeing.

Throughout those days, the falcon had witnessed the boy’s progressive deterioration. At first full, of hope and struggling to escape every time the opportunity presented itself. But little by little, Huey was losing that hope and his resilient attitude was gone, breaking until finally there was nothing left but a sad boy; completely desolate and apparently convinced that he couldn’t escape.

Falcon focused again on Beaks and Huey when he heard the parrot say:

"Come on Huey calm down, I'm here with you."

 _Sure_ , as if that was enough comfort for the boy. Surprisingly, instead of expressing his annoyance at Mark's shallow comfort, all that the duckling babbled in the middle of his crying was:

"I... I... can't... those videos..."

Beaks again wrapped the boy in his arms while saying:

"I'm sorry you had to see that. If I had known what the content was, I would never have shown you."

From his position, Graves saw that the boy dressed in red was trembling. His eyes closed, but that didn’t prevent the tears from flowing. The boy dressed in red took several deep breaths before he could speak again, and when he did, said:

"I can’t believe they d-did... they are my... family, why?"

Beaks separated from the duckling so he could look him in the eye when he said:

"Oh Huey, it seems your family doesn't love you as much as you thought."

The boy with a red cap's eyes opened in shock and again his eyes were filled with tears. At the same time the boy shook his head and said:

"No... that's not... it can't be true... it has to be a lie! It has to be…”

Covering his face with his hands, the boy began to cry again inconsolably. Graves almost felt sorry for the boy, almost.

"Huey calm down, you are very upset. I think you need to rest, sleep a little and you’ll see how everything will be better tomorrow. Come on, I’ll accompany you to your room."

Moving his hands off his face, the falcon saw that the duckling reflected deep fear when he heard those words, his beak opened and closed several times until he finally managed to ask:

"R-room?"

The Waddle’s CEO tilted his head and replied:

“Yes, to a room, a real room, not that little space you were in. A large and well-lit room awaits you, with a soft bed so you can sleep and regain strength.”

The falcon watched as Beaks smiled broadly, to show the boy that he wasn’t lying. Then he extended his hand to Huey and although still a little hesitant, the boy took it and allowed the Waddle’s CEO to lead him back where he wanted.

Did his eyes just betray him? Did that boy just accept of his own accord to go with Mark Beaks? How had the parrot gotten such a prodigy? It was unheard of! Following them both at a safe distance, they passed through the dining room where Beaks had allowed him to eat, which was another thing that Graves failed to understand. Graves spent weeks starving the boy on Mark’s orders, but then decides to let the prisoner stuff himself on his first day back, reversing everything. True, a single meal didn’t make up several days of malnutrition, but still. That was like taking a step back in all the work he’d done in recent days, wasn't it? Why did his employer act that way? 

At the end of the hall, Beaks opened a door and entered along with Huey inside. Graves already knew what was on the other side of that door, because there were times when his boredom reached such a point that his only distraction was to explore every corner of the huge building. For that reason, he knew that on the other side of that door was a room with a bed, a nightstand, a desk with a chair, and even a spacious closet, yes, a room more than large and fully equipped for one person. Falcon no longer knew what to think, was the Waddle’s CEO really expecting to get good results doing all that?

Seeing that apparently it would take a while for Beaks to leave that room, and knowing that the parrot had ordered him that the boy couldn’t see him, Graves decided to go to the dining room to eat some of the succulent food that Mark had prepared for the boy. He considered it... an additional payment for his work, and it was fair in his opinion, because watching a prisoner is never a pleasant task. Especially if it includes cleaning his... it’d be better forgetting that part.

While Graves was eating, Beaks suddenly appeared through the door, the hawk stared at him with some... apprehension, fearing Beaks would say something to be eating what was originally intended for that duckling. But far from getting angry or reprimanding him for what he was doing, the gray parrot said:

"Take advantage."

Needless to say, Graves' eyes widened in surprise at those words. He didn't expect it at all. Seriously, how did that bird's mind work? Graves didn't exaggerate if he said Mark Beaks was the strangest being he had ever encountered. Swallowing quickly what he was chewing, the hawk put aside the food and approached his employer to... expose the doubts he had:

"Mr. Beaks, can you answer this? How did you get that duckling to accept the signs of affection coming from... someone who was well known he loathed?”

Beaks smiled smugly and replied:

“Oh, come on, I know you're talking about me, and the answer is simple. That kid has been isolated, deprived of any contact or social interaction with anyone and for a very long time. This has generated in him a tremendously severe need for care and affection, and in his condition, he is willing to accept any sign of concern for him, no matter who comes from. It’s all about supply and demand, buddy. And I’m currently the only supplier. 

The falcon narrowed his eyes at that explanation, what the parrot said was true. But that didn't explain everything, so he kept asking:

"And what do you hope to achieve by doing this?"

Beaks glared at him and responded in a slightly annoyance:

“Graves, I’ve already explained it to you. I want that duckling to only trust me, I want him to believe that he can only rest when I am with him, I want him to believe that he can only be well fed if I am here, I want him to think that only when I’m present he’ll be allowed to move freely. In short, I want him to develop dependence on me, to reach the absolute conviction that only with me he can be safe. And that's why I still need you to keep taking care of Huey.”

Falcon sighed in annoyance, the idea of continuing having to take care of that boy still didn't appeal him. But he couldn't do anything better either. And now that he thought about it...

"Speaking of the boy, where is he now?" Asked to the Waddle’s CEO, to which he replied:

"He’s sleeping. The boy was afraid of being alone, so I couldn’t get out of there until he has fallen asleep, and I think that in addition... he’ll probably be afraid of the dark for a long, long, long time."

Graves' eyes widened slightly in surprise upon hearing that, and incredulously asked:

"Really?"

Beaks smiled with what appeared to be cruelty, which showed Falcon that all the love he’d shown towards the duckling was nothing more than a mask. A performance to achieve a result. Then, cheerfully, the gray parrot responded:

“Totally, he didn't even want to try to sleep if there wasn't a light on nearby. I guess dark rooms give kids trauma.”

It go unnoticed that Beaks seemed joyfully at the child’s current state. He was really enjoying that boy's suffering, which led him to his next question:

"Mr. Beaks, now that you’ve installed the boy in the other room, does that mean that it’ll be his new ‘jail’?”

"No way." Beaks replied almost instantly.

That answer deeply missed Graves. If that room wasn't the duckling's new ‘jail’, then why had Beaks taken him there to sleep? Arching an eyebrow, the hawk then asked completely surprised:

"What?"

Annoyed, the Waddle's CEO glared at him and impatiently explained:

“Huey’ll only occupy that room when I'm here. When I'm out, you’ll lock him back in the other room. That will reinforce the idea that only with me he’ll be safe.”

Not wanting to oppose Beaks and trying to prevent his extremely volatile temper, which he could sense was rising, from unleashing, the hawk simply said:

"I understand... something else, were you joking about costuming me up?"

At that question, Beaks smiled broadly and in a much happier voice than before answered:

“Nope! In fact, I’ve brought everything you might need and even masks to cover your face. Each of these masks has the face of Huey's loved ones. Oh, and I just remembered a couple more things.”

The hawk' eyes widened again with surprise and then asked:

"A couple things?"

Beaks smiled again with malice and responded to his employee:

“Yes, first, you‘re now allowed to talk to him. In fact, do it often, but do it to say hurtful words, words of contempt. This, added to the fact that he’ll see you disguised as someone of his family, will make him believe over time, that his loved ones not only mistreat him, but despise him.”

Graves couldn't contain himself in amazement. How could that parrot be so twisted as to do such a thing to a poor boy? Was the affront that that duckling actually had done to the gray parrot so deep?

Swallowing with fear, the hawk dared to ask:

"And... the second thing?"

Beaks smile increased, his eyes now reflected pure evil mixed with immeasurable fury. And when the parrot spoke, he did it in a sinister and hateful voice:

“I want you to reserve your greatest cruelty against Huey for when you disguise yourself as Gizmoduck. I want the boy to fear him so deeply that just naming that superhero causes the boy to tremble in fear. In fact, I already know the first thing I want you to do in disguise as Gizmoduck.”

At this point, Falcon now knew that he could expect anything from his employer. So with some fear of what the parrot would order him to do, while maintaining a stoic stance that prevented him from seeing how nervous he really was, asked:

"What is it?"

Beaks frowned and replied:

“I want you to take the cap that the boy always wears and burn it in front of his eyes.”

Falcon simply arched an eyebrow, was that all? Burn a hat? In a strange voice, the falcon of brown plumage asked:

"With what purpose?"

Beaks looked away, and with his hands behind his back, he began to walk around the room explaining:

“That boy is very attached to that particular garment, although I don't understand why. But, if he sees someone similar to the superhero that he admires destroying a possession so valuable to him, he’ll start doubting that superhero. And if you add the worst treatment he can receive, then those doubts will become fear of him.”

The gray parrot suddenly stopped and, turning to look at Falcon, called:

"Oh, and Graves,”

The hawk also looked at his employer.

"Yes, Mr. Beaks?"

Beaks' gaze suddenly hardened, causing a chill to run through Graves' back, although fortunately for him, the gray parrot seemed to not realize that. Beaks continued to say:

"As a special request, record the moment you burn the boy's cap, I want to see his reaction to that event."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that’s all for now, how do you think about Grave’s POV? Did you liked it? Also, you’ve seen more about Beaks plan, didn’t you?
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and yeetus159 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	17. Contradictory visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! Again, this week I’m updating before than I use to since tomorrow, I’ll go on a trip with a group of kids and it would be impossible for me to update until Sunday. This chapter is an idea I had at the very beginning of this story and I was excited to put it. The moment has finally arrived. I really hope you all will like it!
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Louie felt strange, it was... it was as if he was floating in the dark... wait a moment, of course it was dark if his eyes were closed, how stupid! Luckily his brothers weren't there to see that.

The triplet dressed in green opened his eyes and the environment in which he found himself surprised him immensely. He was... he was in the middle of an immense expanse, all covered in fog. What the-? Where was he?

Looking around the triplet in green saw a figure, who looked as confused as himself. Although he was a little... no, quite nervous, Louie decided to approach to see what it was. And when he did, he saw that it was Dewey. Both brothers looked at each other and smiled and hugged, grateful that it wasn't some other person... or something. After finishing the hug, then the youngest of the two asked:

"Uhhh... Dewey do you know where we are?"

Dewey looked around briefly and shrugged, replying:

"Well, no, I have no idea, but it seems..."

Before Dewey could say whatever he was thinking, Louie raised a hand to silence his brother and spoke instead:

"Don't even think to say heaven."

The eyes of the middle triplet widened in surprise and trying to talk slyly, he said nervously:

"Whaaaaat…? I wasn’t going to say that.”

Louie crossed his arms, and arching an eyebrow, in a slightly mocking voice asked:

"Oh really? So, what were you going to say?

Dewey's eyes widened even more than before and he shifted his feet nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, before laughing and finally acknowledged:

"I was going to say- I was going to say... okay yes, I was going to say heaven."

Louie closed his eyes and sighed in annoyance; he really knew his brother too well. Opening his eyes again, looked at his older brother immediately and annoyedly, said:

"Well, this can't be heaven."

Dewey tilted his head and, strangely, asked:

"And why not?"

Louie sighed and in a voice that was a mixture of annoyance and boredom, especially boredom, the triplet dressed in green explained:

"For us to be in heaven we’d have to be dead, and we aren’t. I feel very alive, thank you. Also, I doubt that the heaven looks like this, too much..."

Louie had always imagined heaven as the best place imaginable. A place full of... treasures... everywhere, and this place... was far from being what he imagined. During his moments of internal reflection, Dewey suddenly tried to conclude his brother's sentence:

"Boring?"

"Empty." Louie clarified.

The triplet dressed in blue frowned and crossed his arms, then said:

"Okay then... in your expert opinion, where are we?"

Louie put his hand under his beak and after considering it for a while, finally said:

“If I have to guess, I’d say that it is a dream, _my_ dream since I am very aware of what is happening.”

After that explanation, Dewey dropped his arms and approached his brother and very convincedly, said:

"Your dream? I'm sorry Lou, but there you’re wrong, because I am also very aware of what is happening, this has to be my dream.”

Louie raised an eyebrow as he looked at his brother with an indecipherable expression. He knew very well that in his dreams, when he adopted that expression, his brothers were able to know what was thinking, unlike when he was awake, so if the one in front of him was really Dewey, then his brother wouldn’t be able to know what Louie was thinking-

“Can I know why you look at me like that, Lou? Is it that I’ve monkeys on my face or something?”

Well, that was really Dewey, so this led Louie to his initial question, which he expressed by saying:

"Come on, if we both are aware of what is going on, then what is this site?"

Louie asked it because he was positively certain that they hadn’t left the mansion since they had been visited by Gyro and his science geeks’ group. No, none of them had left. In fact, after what they had been told, the two younger triplets had gone to their room and climbed into Huey's bed and sat there, looking for some consolation being among their older brother’s things. That was a custom that they acquired since their oldest brother’s kidnapping. Then the next thing he knew, Louie woke up here, in this strange place.

Dewey's voice suddenly caught the younger triplet’s attention:

"Hey Louie, don't you think it could be... something like what... like a week ago when we both had the same dream?"

Louie stared at Dewey, that was... a possibility. But it seemed very unlikely, since what they were currently seeing and since the two were able to talk to each other was something extremely different from that of the other time. So, the boy said:

"But on that occasion, what we saw was what Huey was experiencing, not each other."

Dewey looked away, really didn't seem to want to remember that event. But still, the middle triplet tried to keep his posture responding:

“I know… but maybe it's not always the same. This may be another kind of… connection with Huey, like what Uncle Scrooge said. Look, I know it seems crazy, but maybe what we should do is inspect the place a bit.”

Louie narrowed his eyes, and a little annoyed, replied sarcastically:

"Oh, you mean inspect this vast plain?"

This time it was Dewey who glared at him, and responded to his brother's sarcasm by asking:

"Can you think of a better idea?"

Louie opened his beak to answer, but found himself that he really didn't have an answer for that. After a little while of silent reflection, the boy dressed in green finally replied:

"… no, the truth is no."

Dewey smiled triumphantly at his younger brother's words. But soon hid it and, speaking more seriously than before, said:

"Okay, then let's go."

The two youngest triplets, began to walk towards... actually, they didn’t know where they were going. Everything seemed to be the same. Then, suddenly, the boy in the green sweatshirt saw something in the distance. It looked like a moving silhouette. The figure of a duck... a child to be precise who looked around frantically. Who could they be? Cautiously, the two triplets approached slowly, because yes, Dewey had also seen it. As they approached that figure, Louie could tell that this kid was wearing something on his head. A... cap? Was that-?

"Huey!"

The scream had come from Dewey, who instantly ran to the newly identified figure. It didn't take Louie half a second to follow his example. They both were happy to see their brother, but... something wasn’t right... 

That figure... the duckling who they identified as their brother had stiffened upon hearing the blue triplet’s voice, and then had begun to turn very slowly to face them. But what was already decisive to ensure that something wasn’t right, was Huey's face, who looked at them both with... fear? Was Huey afraid of seeing his brothers? One would have thought that the triplet dressed in red would have felt a great joyful and happiness seeing his family again, and not quite the opposite.

The two younger brothers, still with smiles on their faces, stopped a few steps away from Huey, who simply stood there, as if petrified. Louie saw him close his hands in fists and lift hug them to his chest. Something the boy did when he was afraid or nervous.

And now that Louie realized, the red-dressed boy wore other clothes than his usual red polo. He wore a red button-down shirt with a maroon sweater. He almost looked like he was dressed like... no! Louie knew that his brother would never dress like that parrot. But now, seeing him like that... what was going on?

Seeing his posture, the two younger triplets’ smile hesitated, and an awkward silence settled between them, silence that was broken by Dewey when the boy spoke:

"Huey-"

But that was all he could say before the older triplet suddenly exclaimed:

"No! Stay away."

Louie opened his eyes with surprise. That reaction wasn’t expected from his brother, so with slight alarm, he said:

"What? But Huey, it’s us.”

Dewey added:

“Come on bro, what's wrong with you? We’ve been really worried about you.”

Huey stepped back slightly, lowering his arms, and closing his eyes, asked:

“Y-you have been worried about me? Do you really mean it or is it a lie like the others?”

Okay, Louie was starting to worry about his brother's strange attitude. Asked anxiously:

"But what are you talking about Huey?"

The two younger brothers could see that Huey's beak was shaking, then, speaking in a trembling voice, the little duck asked:

“Do you… do you really care about me? Any of those in the mansion?”

The question seemed to outrage Dewey, who, frowning, asked hardly:

“What kind of question is that? Of course, yes, Huey.”

Louie tried to speak much more smoothly than his brother when he explained:

"Since you disappeared, we’ve been moving heaven and earth to find you. We knew almost from the beginning who kidnapped you, we’ve even confirmed who hired Graves to do it."

Huey visibly cringed. His body was shaking, and he seemed to be making great efforts not to cry. He finally opened his eyes and looked at his brothers. His eyes were shining and they could clearly see the feeling of pain and betrayal on them. Then the elder triplet asked:

"How can I believe you after- after...?"

He couldn't even finish the question before a sob escaped his beak. The older duckling lowered his head, unable to maintain eye contact with his brothers. Dewey and Louie exchanged glances before moving a little closer to their brother. Dewey asked him:

“Huey, what's wrong with you? Has Beaks done something to you?”

The older triplet raised his head, completely surprised and with a slight stutter asked:

"H-how...? How do you know that it was...?”

Louie sighed and softly replied:

"We told you, we suspected that it was him who planned to kidnap you, but until recently we haven’t had evidence to confirm it."

Huey's eyes widened. It seemed... it seemed he finally believed them. The boy in a cap asked with a touch of hope in his voice:

“D-do you have… evidence? And… do you know where he took me?”

Shaking his head, it was Dewey who answered saying:

"We don't know that, but we do know other things Huey."

With a slight touch of panic, the older brother asked:

"What things?"

Looking down at the floor sadly, Louie replied:

“What Beaks plans to do to you.”

Huey inhaled sharply at that response, and then, in anxiously asked:

“What he plans to do me? B-But since he has returned, he has treated me… kindly. What do you mean, ‘he has more plans for me?’”

Dewey opened his eyes surprised and then asked:

“Wait, have you seen Beaks again? Did he let you out of that dark room?”

Huey turned to look at Dewey in fear and tremblingly asked:

"H-how did you know where I was locked?"

It seemed that the older triplet hadn’t wanted it to be known that he had been held in that place. But it was too late for that... the two younger triplets looked at each other momentarily and then Louie explained:

“A week ago, we had a dream and we saw it. We also saw how Graves treated you, and a few hours ago, Gyro and his team told us that the place where they locked you up and the way Graves treated you is part of Beaks’ plan.”

Receding, the boy in a red cap asked:

"W-what plan?"

Dewey sighed and bluntly said:

"Beaks wants to brainwash you."

"What?!" Huey shouted in a strangled scream. Almost instantly, the boy began to breathe too fast, as if he was hyperventilating. He seemed to be having a panic attack or something like that.

Walking forward to be by his side, Louie put a hand on Huey's shoulder and softly, said:

"Calm down Huey, breathe... breathe, calm down."

He didn’t really know if it would work. But apparently, it was effective, because the older triplet gradually managed to control his breathing again. When he had calmed down enough, asked fearfully:

"W-what do you mean by brainwashing me?"

Dewey stood on his brother’s other side, trying to convey his love and support. Louie then continued to speak softly explaining:

"Beaks wants you to think we hate you. I think he wants you to distrust us and depend on him.” Louie took a deep breath “He wants to control you completely."

Huey looked at him as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was as if somehow, he was confident that Beaks would never do such a thing to him. Then, Dewey decided to intervene saying:

"Yes, and Fenton told us that this was achieved by weakening the person physically and also in a psycho... pysco... phatolo... arg what word was it?"

Huey focused his attention on Dewey and simply said:

"Psychologically?"

Dewey smiled and nodded then continued explaining:

"Yes, that, Fenton told us that this kind of weakening was achieved by completely isolating the person."

Louie decided to finish the explanation:

"And when this person was weak enough, then could be manipulated."

Huey looked at him with a horror expression on his face and fearfully, asked:

"Manipulated? How?"

This time it was Dewey who responded, and he did so by explaining:

"According to what Uncle Scrooge's scientists told us, controlling the information given to the person and also presenting themself as the only one who truly cares about you."

Took a deep breath and then grabbed his older brother by the shoulders, and looking him straight in the eye, said totally seriously:

“Huey… whatever Beaks told you or did, it's not real, he does it to manipulate you… in a much darker way than I would ever do… what I mean by this, is that you can't believe anything that the parrot tells you. It is not true, he doesn’t do it to help you, but to hurt you.”

Huey pulled at the feathers on his head, acting as if he felt pain, seemed... disoriented, confused. Then and to Louie's surprise, his brother fell to his knees, and weakly said:

"I... I... I don't know what to think."

Louie looked at Dewey, because of his brother's acting way, it seemed that something more had happened than the simple fact of having been locked up. Then, as a light of inspiration, the youngest triplet thought he discovered what had happened, and expressed it by saying:

"Huey... Beaks has already shown you the videos, hasn’t he?"

The older triplet raised his head and looked at his brother with surprised eyes and with fear, asked:

"How do you know about the videos?"

Louie responded:

"It's something that Gyro also told us they had found. Videos of the mansion, some of them modified, so that Beaks could show you what he wanted you to see, not reality."

Huey got up suddenly, surprising for the second time the youngest of the triplets. The only thing is that now Huey seemed upset for some reason, which he demonstrated with his next words:

"I... have a hard time believing that after seeing that Beakley didn't stop you from leaving both while she sent me to pick up our room alone."

The two youngest triplets looked at each other with wide eyes, what was Huey talking about? Then... they remembered. That day... one of the worst days of their life without a doubt. Louie breathed a sigh and then told:

"Oh that, yes, it's true, Beakley didn't stop us from leaving... at that time."

Huey went from annoyed to bewildered, and surprisedly, asked:

"What?"

Dewey approached Huey again and putting a hand on his shoulder, explained:

“What I don't think you know, is that Mrs. Beakley grounded us to help her clean the rest of the mansion for trying to escape our obligations. I think we lost out.”

Huey looked at his two brothers, moving from one to the other, looking for some sign of lies in them. And not finding them, asked:

"B-but what about the rest of the things Beaks showed me?"

Louie also approached his brother and sympathetically, said:

“I’m totally sure that everything was manipulated so you could see what Beaks wanted you to see. It wasn’t real, he cheated you.”

Dewey stood in front of his older brother and putting both hands on his shoulders, looked him straight in the eye and in a serious voice with a touch of concern, said:

“Huey listen, we are trying our best to find you. And we believe that we have already found a way to locate you. You have to be strong, don't let Beaks win. Keep fighting and remember that we... our whole family loves you, okay?”

Huey looked at his brother with some confusion, and although he didn't seem entirely convinced, he replied:

"… okay."

After these last words, everything went black around Louie. The next thing he knew was that he had woken up suddenly in Huey's bed, with Dewey at his side. The two looked at each other. With a simple look, they understood that what they had seen was real, that they had seen and talked with their missing brother. They could only hope that for the older triplet that would be more than a dream, that the words they had told him would really help him keep fighting and not succumb to Beaks' plans.

That was all Louie wanted, to be able to recover his brother before it was late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that’s all for now, what do you thing about this triplets’ meeting? Did you like it? I’ve to admit I liked to write this chapter from Louie’s POV 😊 and also make some brotp between Dewey and Louie, this is something I missed in the show until “Louie’s eleven!” was aired. I really loved that episode! Maybe one of the parts I liked more to write, was how each brother imagine Heaven, the idea came to my mind and I had to write it, and after write it, I liked how it came out 😊 I hope you too!
> 
> After say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and yeetus159 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	18. Is there a solution or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! This time it comes later than I thought, sorry. But on the other hand, it means you’ll have to wait less until chapter 19. In this chapter, I came back to a POV I haven’t used for a while, I hope you all will like it! This chapter wasn’t actually planned, at least not in this way. But as the story advanced, and after see something that gave me the inspiration, I came up with this. I’m sure you’ll understand what am I talking about after reading the chapter 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Fenton was just now entering his house. After leaving the McDuck mansion, the Hispanic duck had headed home, albeit reluctantly, to do what he had agreed with Dr. Gearloose: rest. Honestly, Fenton’d have preferred to go back to the lab and continue working on finding Huey, but the brown plumage duck couldn’t deny that Gyro was right. If he didn’t rest, he wouldn’t be very helpful when the time to rescue the duckling did come. And Fenton was well aware that with Beaks being responsible for what had happened, they would need all the help they could get.

But as much as he wanted to, Fenton felt that he wouldn’t be able to rest. He was too worried about that little boy. And after discovering what was in that box and listening what the two Huey’s brothers had said, his concern had increased exponentially, reaching levels that could lead him to potential anxiety attacks. Something Fenton had never experienced.

If Beaks could see him now, he’d probably be rejoicing at the Hispanic duck’s pain and concern. Oh, how badly Fenton wanted to wipe that smile from his face. He wanted that unscrupulous gray parrot to pay for all the damage he was doing to someone as good and gentle as Huey. That boy didn't deserve to be treated the way he was being treated. No, he deserved to be at home with his family, with his friends, with the people who loved him. Not alone, trapped with people who hated and sought to harm him. 

Fenton sighed. Certainly, the more he thought about it, the harder it was to believe he could get any sleep. Trudging to his bedroom, the weary duck collapsed on his bed, not even bothering to change from his shirt and tie. He’d promised Dr. Gearloose that he would try to rest, and Fenton was a duck of his word.

Situating his head on his pillow, the Hispanic duck noticed that almost instantly his eyelids closed, that it was increasingly difficult to stay awake, what the...? Wow, he must have been much more tired than he thought. Unable to fight any longer, the brown plumage duck ended up succumbing, giving himself up to Morpheus' arms and rested at last.

* * *

_Fenton's eyes widened slowly and he found himself in the middle of a white hallway. Where was he? What place was this? Looking both ways down the hall, the Hispanic duck didn't know where to go._

_"Help!" a voice suddenly shouted. Fenton recognized that voice. It was Huey!_

_The brown plumage duck began to run in the direction from which the cry for help had come. But no matter how far he ran, he never seemed to reach the end of the corridor, in fact, it seemed to stretch farther and farther with every stride, preventing from seeing the end. But Fenton was not willing to give up. Huey needed him, and he would help him, no matter what._

_"Huey!" Fenton yelled._

_"Fenton? Fenton! I'm here!" the duckling called, panic in his voice._

_The brown plumage duck increased his sprinting speed until he finally managed to reach the end of the corridor. Doing so, he suddenly found himself in a large dark space, and in the center of this space, was Huey. He was illuminated by a beam of light coming from the ceiling. Fenton saw that the duckling's hands were connected to the ground with chains. And that the boy could only move as far as the length of these chains allowed._

_With tears in his eyes, the little duck dressed in red looked at the adult and pleadingly called:_

_"F-Fenton please get me out of here... before he gets back."_

_"Don’t worry Huey, I'm coming," Fenton assured as he advanced towards the terrified boy._

_"I'm afraid you're wrong, amigo." A third voice rose behind him suddenly, a voice that made Fenton's blood boil at the same time as Huey began to tremble with fear._

_But when he spin around, no one was there. It was too dark to distinguish where the voice came from. So, Fenton chose to call him out:_

_"What's wrong Beaks, can't you deal with people your size? You dedicate yourself to hurting children?"_

_The gray parrot, still hidden, laughed and spoke next:_

_"Oh no, I see you don't get it. I didn't choose this boy by chance; I knew very well why I chose him."_

_Fenton's eyes widened in surprise at those words, and worriedly, asked:_

_"What do you mean?"_

_The gray parrot spoke again, voice joyous and smug in a way that made constant chills run down the adult duck's back. The parrot seemed to be mocking him as he said:_

_"Do you think I haven't noticed the friendship that unites you both? I knew that by hurting him, I would hurt you.”_

_Those words made Fenton lose the last of his patience. Clenching his hands into fists, the Hispanic duck began to tremble, screaming loudly:_

_“You are a coward Beaks! Get out and face me!"_

_Another laugh from Beaks was heard before the parrot said:_

_"Oh, if that's what you want..."_

_And with that a new beam of light lit up another part of the room, revealing... a creepy version of Mark Beaks. Something truly terrifying, since the gray parrot was three times taller and his body mass was at least ten... no, fifty times more than before, he really looked like a monster... huge and muscular, looking at him manically and red eyes thirsty for blood._

_Fenton recoiled in shock at the drastic Waddle CEO’s change. But quickly shook his head. He couldn't be intimidated by that guy, so frowning and stepping forward, the brown plumage duck yelled:_

_"Blathering Blatherskite!"_

_Fenton stood there, waiting for his armor to appear and turn him into Gizmoduck. But he waited and nothing happened, causing the brown plumage duck to worry. Then Beaks started laughing again and while pointing to another part of the room, said mockingly:_

_"Oh, I'm afraid it’ll be useless for you to say those words. You'll see... I think I've had a little accident with your armor."_

_The Hispanic duck followed with his gaze where the parrot pointed, and there he saw his armor completely destroyed, shattered, it was..._

_"Fenton!"_

_The duck jumped at the sudden scream, and when he turned, saw that the monstrous Beaks had Huey in one of his hands, lifted in the air. Also, when lifting him, Beaks had torn off the chains that connected the duckling to the ground, that showed his tremendous strength. Fenton's heart broke when he saw how scared the boy was being suspended in the air by that manic parrot. Recovering from his initial shock, Fenton bravely stepped forward and yelled:_

_"No! Beaks, let him go!”_

_Beaks smiled cruelly and responded:_

_"No, the boy will stay with me forever. You, on the other hand… in less than five seconds will be dead!”_

_Beaks raised his paw and thrust it with the clear intention of crushing Fenton._

* * *

"No!" Fenton yelled, waking up suddenly from his nightmare. The duck stood there panting heavily. Cold sweat all over his trembling body.

What a horrible dream!

Looking towards his window, Fenton saw that it was dawn, geez he’d been sleeping all night! Fenton looked at his cell phone to see if Dr. Gearloose had told him anything new and his eyes widened when he saw that he hadn’t slept only a few hours, but had slept more than a day! How could he have slept so much? Why had nobody woken him up?

Fenton literally jumped out of bed and out of the room. He had to go to the lab. He had to go again with Gyro and the rest of the team! He had to know if they had made progress! Fenton ran to the kitchen, where he met his mother, who naturally was surprised to see her son there. But Fenton wasted no time, he had to go to the lab as soon as possible.

Stuffing unbaked toast in his mouth, Fenton headed straight to Mr. McDuck’s bin. He knew that if he needed to eat more, he had an emergency stash in the lab.

The Hispanic duck arrived at the laboratory in record time. Seriously, he had never gone so fast in his life. As the elevator doors opened, he saw Gyro and, with a voice perhaps too strong, called:

"Dr. Gearloose?”

With a huge scream, the chicken jumped at least two meters above the level of his chair. Seriously, it was quite a record for someone who didn't exercise. Turning to the Hispanic duck, Gyro said angrily:

"How dare you scare me like that ?!"

Fenton scratched the back of his neck nervously, then replied:

"Sorry, it's just that... I just woke up."

Scrooge's head scientist raised an eyebrow and in a slightly confused voice asked:

"Sorry, what?"

The brown plumage duck took a deep breath and explained:

"I’ve been sleeping a whole day. Why did nobody come to tell me if there had been news?"

Gyro stared at him in silence for a few moments and finally replied:

"No one has warned you because there has been no news."

Fenton couldn’t believe that there wasn’t news. How could there not be? Hadn't they been able to look at the Beaks’ GPS log in one day? Unable to mask his frustration, Fenton demanded:

"What?"

Dr. Gearloose let out a weary sigh, perhaps because he already had anticipated that Fenton would react this way, and couldn’t blame him. The poor duck was perhaps the one most concerned with Huey Duck's well-being.

Looking at the Hispanic duck with some... compassion, Gyro explained:

"You see, we tried the idea of the green one and searched through his location history, but that parrot seems to be smarter than we thought."

Fury had disappeared from Fenton's face, and concern had replaced him, and his voice tone showed it when he asked:

"What are you trying to say Dr. Gearloose?"

Gyro sighed again and answered the question:

"What I mean is that Beaks turned off his GPS fifteen days ago, just when that boy disappeared. It was only active again when he was already here in Duckburg. And now, currently, he has been with the GPS off for two days. We don't know where he is."

Fenton couldn’t believe what he had just heard. They believed they finally had an advantage, and it turns out that the parrot was ahead of them again. Falling almost into a shock state, the Hispanic duck asked in a trembling voice:

"Is… that… true?"

Gyro frowned slightly, trying to maintain a stoic façade. But his voice revealed that he was also concerned when he explained:

"What you hear intern, apparently that... pseudoscientist has seemed to take into account the fact that he could be tracked by his smartphone and has taken precautions in this regard."

Fenton's cheer up and hopes plummeted, crashing to the ground. With his voice slightly trembling, he asked:

"It means that... are we’re back to square one?"

Gyro closed his eyes with a sigh and replied:

"Yes, it seems so."

Fenton blinked a few times to avoid shedding frustrated, exhausted tears that were forming in his eyes. Suddenly an idea came to mind.

"Or maybe not," he said in a livelier voice, surprising the other occupants of the laboratory. Quickly gathering around the Hispanic duck, Manny was the first to voice what everyone was wondering:

" _What do you mean?_ " he questioned hitting the ground.

Fenton looked at them all with a smile and replied:

“If we have Beaks' mobile hacked, maybe we can activate his GPS remotely and know where he is.”

Gyro put his hand under his beak, adopting a thoughtful posture. After thinking for a moment, he finally said:

"We could try, but I don’t guarantee results."

Fenton turned to the scientist and with some urgency said:

"I know Dr. Gearloose, but we’ve to do everything in our power to help."

Gyro narrowed his eyes slightly, and finally relented saying:

"Arg... okay, go ahead."

Fenton grinned, grateful that Dr. Gearloose had accepted. And they immediately got down to business. Unfortunately, they couldn’t activate Beaks’ mobile GPS, something that Gyro confirmed explaining:

"I already said that I didn’t guarantee results. If he was someone normal, by now I’d have achieved it, but someone with a certain... skill for technology like that parrot, is more difficult, it’ll take me at least two days to get access to turn GPS on."

Although discouraged for not having achieved his purpose, Fenton was encouraged to know that they still had possibilities. Cheerfully than before, Fenton said:

"Okay, well let's focus on this for now... if that's okay with you, Dr. Gearloose."

The scientist sighed and replied:

"It isn’t like we have any other way forward, so go ahead."

Fenton smiled sincerely, in truth Dr. Gearloose might seem like someone who didn't care about others. But he was sure that this was just a façade, otherwise he wouldn't dedicate his life to making inventions to help people, especially knowing that he didn't get half the benefits that Beaks did for his creations.

Shaking his head, Fenton decided that he, too, had to get to work. So, going to his desk, the Hispanic duck turned on the computer and when he did, he was surprised, so he immediately called Gyro:

"Dr. Gearloose, it looks like Beaks has updated that brainwashing progress to Huey’s document… Oh my gosh, it's horrible!”

"What's going on, intern?" said the scientist approaching him. Manny and Lil-bulb also approached curiously. Fenton began to read aloud:

“Here it says: _‘After fifteen days of absolute isolation, the subject was ready for the second phase. He has been very submissive and obedient, but clearly still mistrusts me.’_ ”

Those words made Fenton's blood boil, but he tried to hold back and kept reading:

" _'Playing the family clips has produced the desired effect on the subject, perhaps even better than expected, and it can be clearly seen that his belief in them has begun to falter.'_ "

 _Oh no..._ Fenton knew how much Huey loved his family. That this parrot was achieving his goal wasn’t a good sign at all. After a brief reflection, the Hispanic duck continued:

" _‘The current action’s course is to continue undermining the child's trust in his loved ones and to strengthen his dependency on me.’_ "

An awkward silence settled in the laboratory when Fenton finished reading. Suddenly there was a sharp inhalation and almost instantly Gyro said:

“Come on, what are you doing? You’re wasting your time! We must get control of the Beaks’ GPS, and we have to do it by yesterday, understood? I want everyone working!”

 _"Yes, Dr. Gearloose!”_ replied the other three lab occupants.

They immediately started to work to gain full control of Beaks' mobile in hopes of finally finding out where he was keeping his prisoner locked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, yeah so… as you’ve probably imagined, I wrote this chapter after having seen ‘The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee’ episode. I saw that monstrous Beaks and I thought it could be a good version of him to see in a nightmare, so TA-DAH! What a terrible nightmare for Fenton. And having been asleep for more than a day, poor Fenton, he really needed some rest, even if he didn’t want to admit it. Welp, I hope you liked this chapter!
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and yeetus159 for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	19. Destroy what you love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, here’s the new chapter for this week! today I’ve a kinda busy morning, so I tried to have it ready and update before do all what I’ve to do. Back on time YAY😊 Idk how many of you want to see what’s going on with Huey, since we haven’t seen him since Graves’ chapter – I don’t think Fenton’s dream count. For that reason, here you can know now, what is happening to the poor kidnapped triplet. I’ve to warn this can emotionally hurt you. Also, there’s a piece of art on Tumblr related with this chapter. I’ll leave the link on the bottom of this chapter.
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Huey was sitting, hugging his knees against his chest, staring at the door in front of him with fear. The duckling didn't understand. He didn't understand why they had locked him up again in that small, dark room. Just a few days ago, Beaks had allowed him to leave, allowed him to eat whenever he was hungry. Let him go wherever he wanted, just so long he was accompanied (except when he went to the bathroom, of course). He was even allowed outside the building, Beaks claiming it would do him good to breathe fresh air.

To be honest… Huey was deeply grateful that Beaks allowed him to do all those things. But he couldn't stop thinking about what he dreamed about after watching those video clips. In that dream, his brothers seemed so real, and also so convinced of what they were saying... but, on the other hand, Huey didn’t know if he could trust what he had dreamed. He had already dreamt of finding his family and being rescued so many times, but had always woken up to the same reality: that he was still locked in this horrible place.

Once he dreamed that Uncle Donald appeared kicking the door, ripping it off its hinges and charging in to wrap Huey in a big, protective hug. He also dreamed that it was Webby, using her tools, who cut through the door and appeared with her characteristic night vision goggles. His desperation to escape reached such a point that he even dreamed that of Duckworth floating through the door and somehow gave the duckling the ability of intangibility too. How could he trust that dream when his own mind had already deceived him before?

And yet what Dewey and Louie had told him made sense.... It was true that he had been locked up for an indeterminate time. Huey was also very aware of how much isolation weakened him. And after that, Beaks suddenly reappeared and started treating him kindly. But was that really part of some crazy brainwashing plan? It was hard to believe, and reflecting on those videos, Huey realized now that many of them seemed to end suddenly. As if a part of them were missing, could it... could it have happened that Mrs. Beakley forced his brothers to help her clean somewhere else? To be honest, that day, Huey didn’t see them all afternoon. Although, that could’ve been because he’d been locked in his room picking it up himself, and his brothers, knowing that, avoided going there.

Arg, it was all too confusing, and what Graves had started doing now wasn’t helping him at all.

* * *

_Flashback_

_On the third day after Beaks allowed Huey out of the dark room, while Huey was still asleep, the bedroom door burst open, instantly awakening the duckling. The oldest triplet jerked up and froze, scared, because Graves had appeared wearing a sailor suit like his uncle Donald's, wearing a mask of his uncle’s face. What was Graves doing here? And why was he disguised as his uncle Donald? Where was Beaks?_

_The duckling watched with fear as Graves approached him. He said:_

_"Come with me."_

_Huey's fear increased exponentially at the tone the hawk used to say those words. And the fact that his voice sounded slightly muffled due to the mask he was wearing didn’t help make him seem less creepy._

_Swallowing thickly, the boy asked:_

_"To... where?"_

_Again, more menacing than before, Falcon replied:_

_"Somewhere where someone like you deserves to go."_

_Huey's eyes widened and he anxiously asked:_

_"W-what?"_

_Graves's voice rose to a threatening level when he replied:_

_"What you’ve heard boy, come on, quickly."_

_Without warning, Falcon grabbed Huey by the wrist and dragged him out of bed. Falcon literally drag him down the hallways, something that seemed to have become a habit every time an adult took him out of a room. This time, however, Huey could barely keep up with the hawk, as the big bird was moving fast and didn't care that the boy couldn’t match his long strides._

_Huey's heart was pounding. He didn't know where they were going this time. Actually, he didn't know until Graves stopped in front of... No! Why there?! The older triplet felt his breathing quicken and instantly tried to escape Graves' grip by pleading:_

_"No! no! Please, not there again!”_

_Huey could feel tears gathering in his eyes and then rolling down his cheeks. He didn't understand, Beaks had taken him out of there. Why was Graves locking him up again? Despite his struggles to escape, the hawk didn’t seem willing to give in. He tightened his grip on the boy and barked harshly at him:_

_"You are in no position to argue."_

_That said, the large bird opened the door, revealing the dark space that he feared, and instantly, he threw the duckling inside. Then he said:_

_"You’ll stay here, grounded."_

_Huey got up instantly, turning to look at the hawk. His face stained by the dirt on the ground and the tears that kept pouring out of his eyes. He asked then, tremblingly:_

_"Why?"_

_Graves's voice was deep and full of hatred when he replied:_

_"Because you are nobody, you don't deserve anyone to waste time with you."_

_End of flashback_

* * *

After locking him away, Graves had visited him on several occasions, always disguised as a member of his family. The truth... Huey had the impression that the hawk visited him even more frequently than during his first stay in that room, and strangely, the boy would prefer that he didn’t. Being locked up there again, Huey had returned to the routine of being fed with very little food. But also, every time the muscular bird entered, either to bring him food or simply to control him, he always said something to him, extremely hurtful words.

The older triplet felt much more tired than before. Although he didn’t know if it was because of how alteration left him Graves’ words or because he was hardly resting. Seriously, sometimes he had the impression of having slept only few minutes before the hawk appeared again to tell him one of his sentences:

_Graves-Dewey: "You are a disaster."_

_Graves-Webby: "No one wants to be with you."_

Huey believed- no, he _was_ convinced that his family would never say such things about him...

_Graves-Louie: "You are just a nerd and nobody likes nerds."_

_Graves-Donald: "You're too whiney, a cry baby."_

But... every time Graves entered through that door, every time he spoke, the little red-dressed duckling found it more difficult to convince himself that it wasn’t his family who told him that. Or that they didn’t at least think that. 

_Graves-Scrooge: "You are a shame to this family."_

_Graves-Duckworth: "You're worthless."_

Huey closed his eyes and covered his ears. He wanted to silence the voices in his head. Everything that Graves had told him, but no matter how hard he tried, each and every thing he had said kept ringing and ringing in his mind.

_Graves-Donald: "Your place is this."_

_Graves-Scrooge: "You deserve everything that is happening to you."_

_Graves-Beakley: "You are weak."_

The duckling felt moisture running down his face... he was crying again. But he didn't care anymore, he didn't care if they saw him like that, because... maybe... maybe he was a weak boy. It could be that he really didn't deserve the respect and love of his family... it could be that they actually hated him and everything Graves said to him was true...

No! He couldn't think like that! Dewey and Louie had told him at their outer body… meeting? that this was all Beaks’ tactic to brainwash him. He couldn't lose his trust in his family. They loved him, but still… what if it had just been that? A dream? What if everything his brothers had told him was just the fruit of his imagination? Just a feeble attempt of his mind to keep hope’s flame alive for his loved ones. What other explanation could there be-?

Huey's thought process was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming open. Fearfully, Huey opened his eyes and looked up. As he did so his breath hitched. Before his eyes was Graves again, only this time the costume he wore wasn’t from anyone in his family or from the mansion. No, the costume the hawk wore was Gizmoduck’s costume. And the truth is that it was a very, very realistic. It almost looked like the authentic suit.

Truthfully, if it wasn't for the beak and the plumage being darker brown than Fenton's, Huey would’ve believed that this certainly was the real Gizmoduck before his eyes. The duckling stood up as the hawk entered the room. Why was he now disguised as the superhero he admired? What did Falcon plan to do?

Graves moved closer and all Huey could do was press his back against the wall. He couldn't escape. There was no way out. He was cornered. The duckling began to tremble slightly, but he didn’t take his eyes off the disguised falcon.

The bird with brown plumage approached until he was in front of the boy. Once there, he reached out. Huey squealed his eyes shut, fearing of being grabbed, but Graves reached over his head and only took his hat. Opening his eyes in surprise, the boy looked at the adult, who was now holding the only piece of clothing that didn’t make him feel strange and reminded him of home. What did the hawk intend to do with that?

"Hey! Give it back!” Huey yelled angrily, stepping forward, even though that might’ve not been the smartest move to make.

Although his face was covered by the mask, Huey supposed that the hawk was glaring, as he replied in a hard, dry voice:

"No."

Falcon’s response seemed so full of hatred that Huey felt a chill run down his spine, and he immediately backed away, eyes wide. His back touched the wall again. Huey didn't understand anything. Why had the hawk taken off his cap? Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, the boy stuttered:

"W-why n-not?"

Graves leaned slightly towards the frightened boy and deeply replied:

"I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Shivering even more than before, Huey felt his breathing speed up, so before speaking, he tried to control his inhales and exhaled. When he managed to re-establish himself enough, the older triplet asked:

"What… kind of lesson?”

Graves straightened up again and simply replied:

"One that will teach you respect.” 

And then, raising his free hand, he revealed a lighter in it, which he proceeded to light. A yellowish flame shine bright in the dark space. Huey's eyes widened in horror as he guessed what Graves's intentions seemed to be. So, leaping forward in a failed attempt to grab his hat, the boy yelled in alarm:

"No! Wait! What are you going to do?"

Graves replied:

"I told you brat, Teach you a lesson."

Seeing that the hawk was bringing the flame closer to his beloved garment, Huey jumped up and grabbed Graves's arm with which held the cap. At the same time as he did that, he exclaimed:

"How can burning my hat be a lesson? Please don't do this… don't take it from me!”

Graves regarded the boy as if he was a pesky fly on his arm. Then, with a jolt, he literally knocked Huey off him, knocking him to the ground. The boy stood up quickly, only to witness Graves set the cap on fire and drop it to the ground. Seeing this, the duckling immediately tried to run towards his burning garment while screaming:

"NO!"

But he didn't go very far because Graves lifted him off the ground and imprisoned his small body to the abdomen of the false Gizmoduck armor. Huey was literally caught in an iron hug, but that didn't stop him from fighting to try to break free while saying:

"Hey, no, release me! Let me go! I have to put out the fire! I have to-"

But the hawk disguised as the superhero he admired so much cut him off, saying:

"No, what you have to do is watch that hat be consumed until there is nothing left."

Huey stopped fighting and looked up to see Falcon's face. Although he was hidden under the helmet, the duckling could tell by his features that the hawk was enjoying what was happening. The boy turned his gaze back to his burning hat.

He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe they were doing this to him. Why? Wasn’t it enough for them to keep him prisoner there? Why did they have to burn his precious cap? For what seemed like the millionth time, Huey felt something liquid running down his face. And his blurred vision confirmed that it was undoubtedly tears. Although distorted, he could see the bright orange of the flickering flames, and how slowly these flames were getting smaller and smaller, until finally there was nothing but ashes.

As soon as it finished, Graves released him, and Huey fell to his hands and knees, head down, his body trembling with pain and rage. He was crying, a bitter cry mixed with hiccups. He hated him, hated Graves, hated that hawk disguised himself, hated that he treated him in such a cruel way, hated that by using his family members he said such horrible things to him. He hated his family and Gizmoduck...

_Wait_

Did he hate his family and Gizmoduck? _No! That was not true! He didn't hate them!_ It was Graves, it wasn't them, none of the them. But... deeply in his mind, a thought was getting stronger. It could be that what Graves was saying, each and every one of those things, was what his family really thought of him; so, in fact it would be his family who would be saying those things to him. And what had happened just a few minutes ago... it could be that Gizmoduck didn’t really want to help him. Maybe what the duck superhero wanted was to harm him. He thought that because of everything that had happened, the action done by Graves with the pseudo-hero costume had been the only one to carry out the actions, more or less physical against him.

Gizmoduck must also think that he was useless. And not only he should think it, but must believe that he deserved to be punished for it.

Huey looked up again. There in the middle was a pile of ashes with what used to be his cap. If Graves wanted to harm him using his family and Gizmoduck, he really had. And Huey no longer knew if he could trust the real superhero or any of his loved ones again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll be honest, write this chapter, broke my heart. After finishing it, my first thought was: ‘Wow, that’s really cruel!’ But on the other side, this is exactly what Beaks ordered Graves to do with Huey’s cap… In fact, after this, and after what Graves is doing now to Huey, is just a matter of time the little duckling will give up and only trust Beaks. Will his family find him before it is too late?
> 
> Linked with this chapter, there’s a piece of art made by @localscissors from Tumblr, if you want to see it, you can find it here: https://localscissors.tumblr.com/post/186437436188/these-are-gifts-for-a-very-fantastic-person
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	20. The last hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Here’s the new chapter for you! I know the last chapter was a big shock for a lot of you, and honestly, I share how you felt. Poor Huey… he doesn’t deserve any of what is happening to him.
> 
> Welp, for this chapter, I wrote it from a POV I’m not sure I’ve used yet, I hope you’ll like it 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Scrooge paced back and forth in his office. His mind was abuzz with everything that had happened. After Gyro and his team informed them of what they had discovered, Scrooge immediately requested to see all of the mentioned content. Naturally, as a precaution, they prevented the kids from seeing any of it; they knew more than enough as it was.

The Scottish duck remembered being dumbfounded by what he saw. The videos, the contract, the whole search related to the manipulation... that parrot really had done so much planning in advance and seemed committed to carrying out his plans to the end. It meant that Huey had a limited time before the poor boy succumbed to Beaks' manipulation.

Afterward, Scrooge asked his scientist to give him a copy of the contract. He wanted to study it, study it thoroughly. He wanted to know just what that parrot was planning to do to his captured nephew. Honestly, what the rich duck saw in that contract, made his blood boil.

"Oh, curse me kilts!"

That Beaks... that malignant monster! He intended to make Huey work excessively, excessive extent even for an adult. And the parrot seemed to have no qualms about it. The document that Scrooge’d been studying implied that this parrot planned to turn Huey into a slave. Literally, and if Beaks also managed to brainwash him as they knew he wanted to do, then... then the lad wouldn’t question or try to escape. He’d be like a puppet in the hands of that perfidious parrot!

No! They couldn’t allow that to happen. He couldn’t let Huey end up in that situation. Especially since, in addition to what Scrooge saw as Huey's labor obligations, he also realized that this contract was binding him for life, which means that, if Beaks got his nephew to sign that document, they would lose his nephew forever... well actually... even if Huey signed that, it wouldn’t be valid. As Donald had indicated, since Huey was a minor his signature would therefore not be valid. But considering everything Mark Beaks had done so far, the Scottish Duck was sure he was beyond caring about legal limits. 

"If I had ye before my eyes I- I..."

Scrooge huffed indignantly. He was sure that after getting his nephew to sign that paper, the Waddle’s CEO would put him to work immediately. Most likely in a hidden place as until now, waiting for the moment when Huey was older or old. At that point, then it would be impossible to recover the lad.

Scrooge sighed, not wanting to think about that. But the more time passed, the harder it became for him to believe that they’d get his nephew back in time. Even after finding him, the poor lad would bd undoubtedly traumatized. A long recovery process surely awaited him. A recovery in which everyone should participate in, of course.

But Huey wasn’t the only one, Scrooge knew. There was someone else, someone who now needed help to overcome the hard blow he had received. His nephew Donald. Yes, the poor lad was visibly devastated. How could he not be? The box’s contents had shook Donald to the core. Scrooge had advised him not to, but Donald insisted on seeing it as well. Claiming he wanted to know exactly what was being done to the older triplet. That turned out… to be a tremendous mistake.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Anticipating that Scrooge would most likely want to see the virtual box they had managed to find among all of Beaks' files, Gyro had copied them in a thumb drive and brought them over to show to his boss. Scrooge was very grateful for that._

_They had chosen Scrooge’s office to view them, as it was the only place where the children wouldn’t be able to hear. When they got there, everyone entered except him and Donald. Scrooge had stopped his nephew before he entered saying:_

_"Donald... I think it would be better if ye didn't see what's in there either."_

_The sailor-dressed duck frowned and replied:_

_"What? What are you talking about, Uncle Scrooge? Of course, I’ll see it, I want to know what that parrot is doing to my boy.”_

_Scrooge shook his head and said:_

_"Lad, I don't think it's a good idea."_

_Donald's glared at Scrooge and angrily replied:_

_"Don't try to stop me Uncle Scrooge."_

_Scrooge let out a weary sigh and replied:_

_"Lad, I just ..." but he stopped suddenly. Knowing how stubborn his nephew was, he knew that he would achieve nothing. Even more, his stubborn and persistent attitude was extremely annoying for the rich duck. So much that frowning Scrooge said annoyedly:_

_"Okay, do what ye want, ye're old enough."_

_Donald narrowed his eyes, but Scrooge wasn’t intimidated by that look. If Donald didn't want to listen to him, he could manage it on his own._

_After everyone entered the office and locked the door, Gryo showed them everything that was in that virtual box. No need to say when they saw the contents of that box, they were... shocked to say it gently. They didn’t expect anything like that at all._

_It was actually much worse than they expected. Especially the videos part, every modification Beaks had made was clearly meant to lead Huey to believe he was despised and hated by his family._

_Donald's eyes widened in horror at what he saw. Especially the video that involved him directly. Scrooge couldn't blame him, because he felt the same when he saw his own scene. The billionaire duck saw his nephew’s shoulders tremble as he put a hand to his forehead. He looked shocked, on the verge of an attack. His breathy voice was barely audible when he spluttered:_

_"Oh, this can't... no... this- this isn't what-"_

_Despite knowing that he had been right, the felt no desire to rub it in. He knew that Donald needed was comfort._

_Scrooge put a hand on his shoulder and said:_

_"Donald... I... wanted to avoid... this bad experience..."_

_Donald looked at his uncle with bright eyes. It was clear that the sailor duck was about to cry, despite the enormous efforts he made to avoid shedding tears. When he spoke, his voice sounded urgent and anguished:_

_"Uncle Scrooge I- Huey- we’ve to get him out of there. We have to rescue him as soon as possible."_

_Scrooge felt his heart break at that broken tone. His nephew seemed so... lost, in need of hope. And as little as it was, Scrooge was willing to give him that hope:_

_"I know lad, I know. And we will."_

_Donald sniffed, and weakly and unsure asked:_

_"Are you sure?"_

_Scrooge nodded and convinced, replied:_

_“I promise ye, Donald.”_

_End of flashback_

Scrooge sighed again. Since they seeing all of that, Donald wandered the mansion as if he had no purpose in life. Like... like... like a living dead. If only he had listened... Scrooge feared that Donald would be seriously affected by the contents of the box. After all, he was the one who raised the lads for ten years. It was logical to expect that he’d be the one to suffer more.

In fact, Scrooge was well aware that, if Della or Donald were the ones in Huey's situation, his own mind state wouldn’t be much better than Donald’s state. Scrooge’d probably be manic, stirring heaven and earth to find them. Actually, that was what he was doing now. But the Waddle’s CEO had planned this carefully. He knew how to cover his tracks well, as they had already been able to verify.

Scrooge's thoughts returned to Donald. His nephew didn’t have anywhere near the resources that Scrooge had. Which meant that, if he was in the same situation, but, without his help, Donald would probably be more lost than he was at the moment. In fact, seeing their uncle in his current condition, the children wasted no time in pointing out that the sailor-dressed duck appeared to be Zombie or something, and the truth… they were right.

The boys were also concerned bout their uncle’s current state. They were puzzled and scared of what had caused Donald to suddenly act the way he did. It wasn’t surprising, because seeing the person who took care of them since they hatched, someone energetic and dedicated, suddenly acting almost like a vegetable, that would scare any child.

And then there was… that other matter, the matter that Dewey and Louie had brought up him the morning after Gyro's visit:

_Flashback_

_Scrooge was still sleeping—to be honest, the rich duck considered a miracle that he had managed to fall asleep—when he heard loud knocking on his bedroom door._

_Annoyed and sulky at being so violently awakened, Scrooge got out of bed and dragged himself toward the door. ready to yell at whoever was on the other side for their lack of consideration._

_He opened the door and his face softened when he saw Dewey and Louie looking at him with wide eyes, they seemed... shocked. Something had happened to his nephews._

_"Lads, what's going on?" he asked with obvious concern in his voice. The two kids looked at each other and then Louie, fiddling with his hands, said:_

_"We... we had a dream Uncle Scrooge."_

_The Scottish duck's eyes widened in surprise. In a voice even more concerned than before, he asked again:_

_"Another dream about Huey? What have yeh seen this time?”_

_Another brief glance between the two, then Dewey explained:_

_"It was more than a dream Uncle Scrooge."_

_Puzzled, Scrooge asked:_

_"What do you mean by that?"_

_Louie was still fiddling with his hands. That was strange, since the lad usually hid his hands in his pockets. Although of course, wearing pajama instead of his usual sweatshirt._

_After a few moments of tense silence, the younger triplet finally replied:_

_"We’ve... we’ve spoken with Huey."_

_Opening his eyes to their full capacity, the only thing Scrooge was able to vocalize was:_

_"W-what?"_

_Again, it was Louie who spoke. He explained:_

_"I know it sounds crazy, but that's how it is. We've seen him, we've talked to him. And we know that Beaks has taken him out of that room and shown him the videos."_

_"What?!" Scrooge shouted alarmed at the last part. The two boys retreated in fear at their sudden great-uncle reaction. Scrooge understood that they had reacted like this, but what the children didn’t know was what implied that their older brother had already viewed the videos. That gave them less time than Scrooge thought they had._

_Scrooge heard Dewey inhale deeply before the blue-clad triplet said:_

_"What we say Uncle Scrooge, it’s true. We’ve spoken with Huey. We’ve both done it."_

_Trying to remain calm, the Scottish duck tried to see the positive side of that situation by asking the kids:_

_"And did he say something to ye? How did he seem?”_

_The two boys looked away. Dewey sighed and anguished, said:_

_"He seemed confused, upset, and didn't seem to trust us at all."_

_And then Louie added:_

_"Uncle Scrooge... do you think Huey’ll end hating us?"_

_Scrooge looked at his nephews sadly. He wanted to believe that this would never happen. But seeing what was being done, and knowing all the procedures that Beaks was using to achieve success, Scrooge doubted more aHuey’s relationship with his family would emerge I damaged. However, he tried to sound as sincere as possible when he replied to the boy:_

_"No, I hope not.”_

_And then he asked:_

_"Is there anything else your brother has told ye or ye’ve seen?"_

_The kids looked at each other, and then again at Scrooge. Dewey began to respond:_

_"No, except..."_

_Intrigued, Scrooge asked:_

_"Except what?"_

_Louie sighed and replied:_

_"Huey was dressed like Beaks, except for the cap."_

_Scrooge's eyes widened once more with fear. Fear that was reflected when he spoke again:_

_"Really?"_

_"Yes, why?" Louie replied, and Dewey added:_

_"Is there something wrong with that?"_

_Scrooge inhaled sharply. He couldn't tell the children that, so, trying to invite them to leave, the rich duck replied:_

_"No, no lads. That’s not wrong. Thank you for... tell me about this. Now... go back to your room. Wake my up if yeh have another dream.”_

_Both children looked reluctant, but obeyed by answering:_

_"Yes, Uncle Scrooge."_

_Scrooge watched them disappear from view. He closed his room door and sighed, closing his eyes._

_The fact that Beaks had dressed Huey in clothes like his, indicated that the parrot was trying to break any ties that Huey had with his past. Even the smallest and most trivial._

_Fortunately, consciously or not, his eldest nephew had kept his cap, a characteristic and very personal element of his. That gave the old duck hope for Huey's resistance to the brainwashing process. Scrooge just hoped they didn't come too late._

_End of flashback_

* * *

What Dewey and Louie told Scrooge regarding the dream only left Scrooge more troubled. They really… really needed to find Huey as soon as possible. If they didn’t... he feared his nephew’s mental state and the permanent damage that could cause him-

The sudden noise of his phone snapped him from his thoughts. Who was calling him now? Looking at the device, he recognized the number immediately and without wasting time picked up:

"Yes? Gyro? What's going on? Do ye already know where my nephew is? How do we find him?”

Scrooge knew he had asked too many questions in a very short time. But concern for the boy made him want to know as much as he could. On the other line side, his scientist responded:

_"Mr. McDuck, we have bad and good news.”_

The Scottish duck narrowed his eyes. He asked:

"What do you mean bad news and good news? Explain yourself, lad.”

He heard Gyro sigh before he replied:

_"We managed to access to Mark Beaks’ GPS record. But unfortunately, he had turned off the GPS signal in the periods of time when we assumed, he was with your nephew."_

Frustration seized Scrooge when he heard those words. No! It was like Della's again! So many efforts invested… and couldn't he get his family back?

"What? Does that mean we can't know where Huey is?” he asked with a hint of despair in his voice.

After a brief silence, his scientist spoke again:

_"That was the bad news, Mr. McDuck. The good news is that we’ve also managed to control that parrot's GPS. Which means that the next time it is turned off we’ll be able to turn it back on remotely and thus be able to determine where he is."_

Fear quickly turned to joy upon hearing that. There was a new reason for hope. Speaking much calmer than before, Scrooge ordered:

"Great, then do it immediately."

Gyro made some inexplicable noise and then simply said:

_"… We can’t."_

That infuriated Scrooge. How couldn’t they? If he just said they could do it! Why was he saying no now?

"What?! Why not?" the Scottish Duck demanded with evident rage in his voice.

Gyro's response was immediate.

_"Because Beaks has his GPS activated, which means we know where he is."_

Scrooge's eyes snapped open. He had… forgotten that little detail. Arg, nerves and stress were surely bringing out the worst in him. Scrooge took several deep breaths and when he managed to calm down enough, replied:

"True... true, ye're absolutely right Gyro. Well when the time comes, let me know immediately, understand?"

The chicken responded almost instantly:

_"Yes Mr. McDuck, we will do so."_

Scrooge nodded and asked:

"Is there anything else ye wanted to tell me?"

There was a moment of silence, almost so long that Scrooge opened his beak to speak again, but before he could get to it, Gyro spoke earlier admitting:

_"... Actually... yes, there is something else, listen..."_

Scrooge began to listen carefully, and as he listened; his eyes widened in horror when he heard what Beaks had written about his nephew. The attitude he displayed, what he planned to do... that... that was horrible!

Huey was perhaps the most obedient of the boys, but he would never act in such a submissive and scary way. Also… the statement that Beaks had shown him the videos was a very bad sign. Especially knowing that the entire time before that, the boy had been isolated and in a state of constant weakness. If Beaks had put those clips on right after he got him out of that room, then that was sure it has had a devastating effect on the boy.

But by far, what continued to scare him the most was hearing that parrot was trying to destroy Huey's confidence in his family. How did he intend to do it? How long did they have before the boy really lost his faith in his family?

Now more than ever, it was imperative that they manage to find the oldest triplet. Every minute that passed, was a minute that crazy parrot was getting closer to his goal.

This, this had turned into a race against time to save Huey's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, team science managed to get control of Beaks’ GPS, but they’re late, and Beaks is now on Duckburg again, which means until Beaks doesn’t go to see Huey again, they won’t be able to find where this parrot is hiding him prisoner. Also, as you probably have noticed, Scrooge is a business duck, so if there’s someone who can understand better all what Beaks plans to do with Huey if he signs the contract, it’s him. Welp, as always, I hope you liked this chapter, I’ve to admit, I had fun writing from Scrooge’s POV.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	21. Almost there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Sorry people I had a very busy morning, and I work from 14:00 to 22:00, so I’m trying to update this in my free time.
> 
> Anyway, here’s the new chapter for you! I’ve to admit, in this chapter appears an element I originally didn’t thought I was going to put, (welp, it appeared on a dream in this same story), but someone commented in the original version if a part of the dream it’d also appear in the real situation it was going on, so I thought, welp, why not? And I put it. I hope you’ll find out soon what I’m talking about, and I hope you’ll like it 😊
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Beaks got out of the car immediately after parking. Five days had passed since his last visit to Huey. He positively knew, thanks to the number of strategically hidden cameras, that Graves had visited the boy constantly disguised as the various mansion’s members.

Honestly, the Waddle’s CEO was impatient for the moment when the hawk would appear as Gizmoduck. He constantly checked the camera feeds until he finally saw him in the superhero costume. It should be said that it was extremely funny to see how the falcon tried to move with that suit without losing his balance. To be honest, it was good that he practiced, since it wouldn’t be very credible if he fell face down in front of the red-dressed triplet. Beaks remembered smiling when he saw Graves enter the room, with the clear intention of following the specific order he gave him. He was surprised afterwards when after a while he saw Graves leave the room and return with chains. Not even two minutes later he left again without them. What had Graves done with those chains? Also, after this, there had been some other moments that Graves had disguised himself as the superhero to visit Huey. Usually when he brought food to the boy.

Actually, Mark was intrigued to know everything. Entering the building, the only thing the Waddle’s CEO focused on was finding his employee, which didn’t take long, the hawk seemed to hear him coming, or perhaps saw him park. The point is that Graves came to meet him saying:

"Mr. Beaks, if you’ve already arrived, does that mean I have to disappear from view, haven’t I?”

Mark smiled widely and cheerfully, replied:

"Yes, you’re right, but before answer this question, what were the chains for?"

Graves's eyes widened in surprise and after awkwardly clearing his throat, said:

"The chains... what? But how have-? Do you have cameras spying on me?”

With a confident smile, the gray parrot crossed his arms and proudly proclaimed:

"Naturally, after all, this building is my baby. I have the right to know how much is happening here."

Graves rolled his eyes, although Beaks ignored him. He then spluttered something that Beaks couldn't understand, although the CEO of Waddle didn't care. He only cared about one thing, so speaking in a slightly impatient voice he said:

"Well?"

Graves looked at him for a few moments, as if he didn't know what Beaks was talking about. Finally, his mind seemed to realize it and he began to explain:

"Ah yes, about the chains... I thought it would be more mortifying for the boy if he kept seeing the ashes mountain of what his cap was, but without being able to reach them."

Mark's eyes widened in surprise. But it was a pleasant, jovial surprise. Still recovering from what Graves had just said, he asked:

"So, you mean that you’ve completely immobilized him?"

The hawk shook his head and explained:

“Not exactly, I’ve put shackles on his wrists, with chains that connect him to the wall. It allows him a certain degree of movement, but it doesn’t allow him to reach the pile of ashes.”

Beaks looked away and began to say:

"That's…"

Graves's face contorted a little, perhaps because he feared he did wrong. With some apprehension the hawk asked:

"Have I exceeded myself?"

Beaks quickly looked back at the hawk smiling broadly and rushed to reply:

"No, on the contrary. It’s magnificent! It’s like putting salt on the wound. It may have had a strong effect on the boy’s mind. I’ll have to evaluate him first, but... it could be that Huey is already... prepared enough to get him out of here.”

Something that seemed to be hope flashed in the falcon's eyes, and with some excitement, asked:

"Does that mean...?"

The Waddle’s CEO nodded and replied:

"Yes, your work would be over. You could go. But I'll say that after studying the boy and his way of reacting to me."

Graves nodded at the gray parrot's last words. Then concluded the conversation:

"Okay, I get it. Do what you’ve to do then. I will get out of boy’s sight."

Beaks nodded one last time saying:

"Yes, I'll take care of everything from now. But before... one last question."

Graves raised an eyebrow, a gesture that Beaks took as an opening to continue talking, so he asked:

"What else have you done to the boy dressed as Gizmoduck?"

Graves's eyes widened in surprise and with slight nervousness, he began:

"I... uh..."

Beaks narrowed his eyes and in a moderately impatient voice urged the falcon to continue:

"Come on, tell me."

The larger bird sighed and then replied:

"I took the food to him, but leave it too far away from him for him to take it."

Beaks was shocked for a few moments. Falcon seemed to have taken his orders seriously. When the gray parrot regained the speak ability, simply said:

"Oh Graves, that’s cold."

Graves sighed again and speaking tensely responded to that comment:

"You told me to save the worst deals for the boy for when he dressed up as Gizmoduck, and this is what I came up with."

It seemed as if Graves believed he went too far doing this. But actually, each of those actions the Falcon had taken against the red-dressed triplet was like music to Beaks's ears. It was just… magnificent, and this was stated by the Waddle’s CEO saying:

"No, it’s okay. I'm looking forward to seeing how that has affected him."

Those words seemed to reassure the hawk, who speaking calmly than before said:

"So, I guess it means I'm leaving now."

Beaks responded:

"Yes, we’ll talk later."

After say that, Graves walked down the hall, disappearing from view. Beaks for his part inhaled and exhaled the joyfully. Everything seemed to be turning out even better than he had expected. Mark headed towards where Huey was locked up. It was time to evaluate Falcon's work in this new process’ phase.

When he reached the door, he stopped for a moment. Before entering, he’d to put on his “concerned mask" that boy. When he thought he was ready, frowned and threw open the door to the room.

Inside the little room, he found Huey, half incorporated with a deep fearful expression on his face. The boy had probably been sleeping, or at least trying to. But upon hearing the door open, he soon sat up, scared of what might happen to him now.

The boy's frightened face reflected slight confusion when saw it was Mark and not Graves who appeared. Beaks saw immediately that as the hawk had told him, the duckling had hoops on his wrists. These cuffs were connected with chains to the wall behind him. And there, there was a pile of ashes that Beaks assumed was what was left of the boy's cap.

As Falcon had said, the chains that limited the boy's movements didn’t allow him to reach the pile of ashes, allowing the boy to have a clear view of them, but couldn’t pick them up, push them away or scatter them. It was like a constant reminder of what he’d lost. Something truly cruel... fantastic!

Beaks plunged into his paper and after a sharp inhalation, cried in anguish:

"Huey? My poor boy! What have they done to you?!”

The fear that until then had adorned Huey's face disappeared and was replaced by relief. That pleased the gray parrot, it pleased him very much. It really seemed that the duckling saw him as his savior. Someone he could trust. Someone who’d rid him of torment... perfect!

Beaks suppressed a smile. He couldn't allow the boy to see through his facade. Instead, the Waddle’s CEO knelt at the red-dressed duckling side and took out the key that Graves had given him just before 'disappearing'. He removed the handcuffs to the boy. Once free, the duckling looked at him with tears in his eyes and immediately, threw himself into Beaks’ arms. He was crying and trembling.

Mark was momentarily surprised by that action. But honestly, it was exactly what he wanted. The gray parrot smiled cruelly as he hugged the boy back. Huey naturally didn't see it. Thinking about what the boy had just done, Beaks realized that if the duckling had no qualms about hugging him and seeking solace in him, that might mean that he trusted him or at least tolerated him enough to want Beaks’ help.

Maybe it was a bit early to assume it, but it could be that Huey was ready to go back to Duckburg... yes, of course. Why not? There was a way to check whether or not the boy was ready to go. The gray parrot rose from the ground, carrying the kid with him. Huey hugged Beaks tightly. He seemed to not want to be separated from him. This was the exact results he wanted! 

The gray parrot, like last time, first brought the boy to the bathroom for the boy to groom himself. Once there, Huey was reluctant to enter alone. He only agreed to do so when Beaks agreed to speak to him through the door the entire time the duckling was grooming.

At lunchtime something similar happened. Huey ate. But he constantly looked at Beaks, just to make sure the parrot was still there. That he hadn't abandoned him. Beaks made mental notes of everything thinking to add it later to his progress sheet.

When Huey finally finished eating, Beaks led him to the same room that he had occupied the last time he was there. Upon entering that room, Mark gently led Huey to the desk and motioned for him to sit in the chair. The Waddle’s CEO bent down to be at the duckling's eye level and speaking worriedly (in his modest opinion, quite realistic), asked:

"Tell me Huey, what happened?"

Huey deliberately looked away, remaining stubbornly silent. Slightly annoyed, the gray parrot tried again:

"Come on Huey, I can't help you if you don't tell me."

The boy closed his eyes and speaking in a trembling voice said:

"It... it was Graves..."

Mark feigned surprise asking almost instantly:

"Graves?"

The boy nodded and continued explaining:

"Yes, I-I... I don't know why he did it... but suddenly he appeared d-dressed like Uncle Donald and-and-"

The boy stopped talking and started shaking again. His eyes were still closed, so he couldn't see the satisfied face that Beaks had, although the Waddle’s CEO knew he had to be careful. He couldn't allow the boy see him rejoicing in his pain. It would ruin everything. So, the gray parrot cleared his throat and feigning be worried, asked:

"What’s up, Huey?"

Huey visibly cringed and after trying to speak several times, finally managed to answer:

"He locked me up again in that- that-"

"That place." Beaks concluded.

The older triplet opened his eyes and nodded. It was clear that he was going to cry at any moment.

Well, it was time to take a risk. Taking a breath, the parrot asked:

"And why did your uncle take you there?"

Huey's head quickly turned to look at Beaks, and speaking surprisedly, said:

"M-my uncle? No… it wasn't him… it was… Graves…”

 _Oh man_ … Huey could still clearly discern difference between his employee and his family. It was clear that the boy needed more time for his mind to get confused enough that he would no longer see a difference between either. Trying to hide his disappointment at that fact, the parrot hastened to say:

"Yeah, sorry, my bad. *cough, cough* Why did he lock you up?"

Huey lowered his head and tremblingly explained:

"H-he said it was where someone l-like me deserved to be."

"What?!" Beaks exclaimed, feigning deep surprise (super realistic reaction by the way).

The duckling closed his eyes and weakly said:

"That w-was what he said… and then..."

"What else has happened?" Mark asked again in an alarmed tone.

The boy trembled again and answered the question explaining:

"He... he came to see me... in costume and every time he came... he... he..."

"Has hurt you?" asked the parrot with feigned concern when saw that the boy was again silent and unable to finish his sentence.

At the question, Huey nodded and replied:

"With his words..."

Mark narrowed his eyes. He knew that the boy hadn’t told everything. But he also seemed to need a push to finish telling what had happened. So, after clearing his throat again, Beaks asked:

"Is there something else?"

Huey's trembling worsened and Beaks realized that his breathing had quickened. Beaks was about to ask but before he could do it Huey spoke up first:

"Yes... but I... no... I don't want-"

Beaks sighed and explained:

"Huey, it isn’t good that you keep those things for yourself. Come on, tell me."

The older triplet inhaled and exhaled several times, probably to calm his nerves, and finally replied:

"Graves disguised himself as Gizmoduck and burned my cap."

"He did this?" Beaks asked in a shocked voice.

The Waddle’s CEO saw the boy nod at the same time as there were tears streaming down his face, despite his closed eyes, magnificent!

He hugged the trembling duckling, Beaks spoke tenderly:

"Oh, my poor boy… I'm sorry this happened to you. But, are you sure it really was Graves?"

Huey's eyes widened and he answered almost immediately:

"Y-yes it was him." then he looked away and sounding less convinced, added:

"It can't be anyone else..."

Arching an eyebrow, the gray parrot asked:

"Are you sure about that?"

The boy didn’t answer, his gaze fell on the ground. It was as if he was internally debating with the possibility that it wasn’t really Graves who was responsible for all the damage that had been done to him. Maybe… maybe the boy was ready to go back to Duckburg. Beaks decided then to do the final test:

"Huey... I think there is a way to... prevent this from happening again," he said to the boy. The duckling immediately looked up at the parrot with hopeful eyes while asking:

"R-Really?"

"Yes." replied the CEO.

The shadow of a smile began to form on Huey's features and then he asked:

"How? How could you prevent this from happening again?”

Beaks smiled widely, if he could get what he wanted, the boy would be his forever. So, he said:

"We can avoid it if you do something for me."

Speaking excited, the duckling asked:

"What... what do I have to do?"

Smiling more than before, Beaks began to say:

"You just have to..." he took out a document and a pen and handing them to Huey concluded:

"Sign this contract."

He put the contract on the table and handed the pen to Huey. The duckling took the utensil and slowly and shakily brought it closer to the paper, only stopping an inch or two from it.

"Come on, just a signature," encouraged the Waddle’s CEO anxiously.

The tip of the pen moved a little closer to the paper, but suddenly, Beaks saw Huey’s eyes open momentarily before closing as the boy said:

"I... I c-can't-"

"Why not?!" Mark suddenly yelled angrily. Huey immediately opened his eyes and looking at the gray parrot with deep fear, he tried to explain himself:

"I-I'm sorry... b-but legally only Uncle Donald could sign it."

Beaks straightened up and closing his eyes took several deep breaths to calm his momentary fit of anger. He couldn't show anger at the boy. Not yet! Before he had to get the boy to be a submissive servant, a slave who wouldn’t dare to disobey him, and it was clear that he hadn’t yet achieved that goal. He had to be... patient, even if it was almost impossible for him.

Opening his eyes again, the Waddle’s CEO looked at the boy sadly and tried to calm him explaining:

"I'm sorry to have yelled at you Huey. I have had... a very stressful day, and what you’ve told me about what they have done to you has left me... very puzzled. I just wanted... to free you, to get you out of this situation forever. This contract will put you under my protection and protect you from them.” 

Mark deliberately used plural terminology to further confuse the boy. He wanted Huey to believe that his family was responsible of his torture, not Graves.

Still trembling slightly, but calmer than before, the duckling began to say:

"I know but-"

The duckling couldn’t finish because at that moment a loud alarm started to sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, welp, have you realized what I was talking about? If you think you know, you can write it on your reviews. Also, Beaks is really manipulative, trying to make the poor boy not trust himself about it was Graves who tortured him. Beaks is a real monster. And he was so close to get his plan succeed… thankfully Huey didn’t sign the contract. Can you imagine why couldn’t he sign the paper? I’ll be glad to hear your thoughts about it… about everything of this chapter. Also, what has activated the alarm? And what will Beaks do from now?Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	22. Help is on the way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Here I bring you the new chapter! I’ve to say, for all those who are waiting what was the alarm of the previous chapter, I’m sorry, but this will continue being a mystery a little bit more of the time, but it’ll be revealed, I promise. I just wanted other things to come first before show it.
> 
> About this current chapter, all what can I say is that I hope you’ll enjoy it 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Fenton didn't know how to contain his excitement. Finally! The time to discover where Beaks was holding Huey prisoner had finally come! And once they had the location, they could go there and rescue him. Soon he’ll be safe again. Soon he would be at home, with his family.

When they saw Beaks deactivate his GPS, Fenton wanted to turn it back on immediately. But Gyro stopped him, explaining it was preferable to wait a few hours because when Beaks turned off the signal, he was still in Duckburg. That meant the CEO was most likely barely on his way.

According to Dr. Gearloose it was preferable that they reactivate the signal when they estimated that Beaks had reached his destination. Otherwise, the parrot could realize that the GPS was active again, and then discover he’d been hacked. 

Despite not liking to wait, the Hispanic duck understood that Dr. Gearloose was right. If they weren't careful, Beaks would discover them. And that might lead to them losing the only chance of finding Huey. No, Fenton wasn’t willing to take that risk. That boy… his friend, had already suffered too much under the yoke of Beaks’ sick mind. Also, the last time Beaks had his GPS turned off, he kept it offline for five days. Hopefully this time he would do the same… probably.

The intern looked at the clock, literally every five minutes, wishing time would go faster. His obvious impatience only made his co-workers, (especially his superior) more nervous.

"Do you plan to be quiet, intern?" Gyro asked annoyedly.

The Hispanic duck was momentarily surprised at his superior’s call, and looking at him with wide eyes, he timidly replied:

"What? Oh… sorry Dr. Gearloose. It's just that… do you think we could activate the GPS yet?”

Gyro gave an exasperated snort, the... twentieth if the brown plumage duck hadn't discounted. Then, the chicken narrowed his eyes at his subordinate and tensely replied:

"Not even ten minutes ago, I answered that question. The answer remains the same. NO! It’s still too soon."

With some hesitation, the Hispanic duck began:

"But it’s already been..."

Before he could look at the clock to confirm the time, Mr. McDuck's main scientist replied:

"Just a scant hour! We’ve to wait at least two or three hours. Maybe even five, to be completely sure."

Despite knowing that information, hearing it made Fenton start to grow more impatient than before. How could he bear to wait so long? No, they should definitely be able to activate Beaks’ GPS much sooner, shouldn’t they? Trying to convince his superior to activate it at that moment, the Hispanic duck began:

"But that's too much time-"

Fenton didn’t finish what he wanted to say because suddenly and unexpectedly, Gyro turned to him and angrily bellowed:

"YOU THINK I DON’T KNOW?! I am very aware of that Crackshell! But I am not going to risk it! I don’t want mistakes! And getting ahead would be a mistake!”

The Hispanic duck involuntarily recoiled at the scientist’s outburst. Certainly... he didn’t expect that, in addition, it was very unusual for him to be called by his last name. Dr. Gearloose usually preferred to call him by his job title or with some invented nickname. The use of his last name was rare and unusual... something new. But Fenton didn't want to be intimidated by what had just happened. So, he persisted in his stubbornness saying:

"Maybe yes and maybe no. Maybe Beaks hasn't even left Duckburg, or- or- maybe he could be on the outskirts, it doesn't take that long-"

"Enough!"

Dr. Gearloose's sudden scream silenced Fenton instantly. Actually, it was true that the chicken was often upset. But rarely had the Hispanic duck seen him with that extreme furious expression. It almost seemed that he was going to attack someone. It was so scary that Fenton felt his breathing speed up, fearing he would soon be the victim of a scientist’s attack.

Fortunately, Dr. Gearloose's anger seemed to calm quickly and then, speaking again normally, although a little harsh, explained:

"Look, I understand that you’re worried about that boy. I really understand. But I’ve also said that the best thing to do is wait. And that’s what we are going to do, end of discussion. Understood?"

Lowering his head, the brown plumage duck replied meekly:

"Yes, Dr. Gearloose."

After these words, Manny approached Fenton and putting a hand... er hoof on his shoulder, said:

"Clop clop clop clopclopclop clopclop (You have to be a patient friend.)"

The Hispanic duck sighed, really appreciated the gesture, but...

"I know Manny, it's just that... I... I really want to find and rescue Huey." he said sadly. The headless horse tapped the ravaged duck lightly on the shoulder as he replied:

"Clopclop clop (I know.)"

Dr. Gearloose caught their attention at the time saying:

"Oh, there’s another thing that we must remember and keep in mind. Once we have that parrot’s location, we’ll turn off the signal again. We don’t need that... pseudoscientist to realize that we’ve hacked the system."

Fenton nodded in agreement. If Beaks realized at some point that he had the GPS on, that could be disastrous. They couldn't allow that to happen. The Hispanic duck finally managed to answer:

"Yeah… of course…" 

After this brief exchange, Mr. McDuck's scientist stared at his intern closely. It really looked like he was examining him. Being scrutinized that way made Fenton nervous. He was going to express his discomfort, but Gyro beat him to it saying:

"Hey intern, it's clear we won’t be getting results for a while. So... why don't you go for a ride to do some... Gizmo-things?"

What? Did Gyro mean to kick him out? If it was because of him that they manufactured the device that allowed them to hack the Waddle system! It was Fenton who managed to open the virtual box in which they found all the intel regarding Beaks' plans! And now that they were so close to finding Huey... now he wanted to push him away? Fine! This duck wasn’t going anywhere! This is what the intern expressed saying:

"What? But Dr. Gearloose, I want to stay here, I want-”

Gyro's face changed and the furious-terrifying expression returned as the scientist shouted:

"Why is it so hard for you to obey ?!"

This time Fenton felt a chill run down his spine. His legs seemed to falter. If it weren't for the table behind him, the duck would probably have fallen to the ground. Seriously, Dr. Gearloose was really scary right now.

The experienced scientist took several deep breaths and finally explained:

"What I want is for you to clear your mind. You are too obsessed with all this, and I need you to be thinking clearly when we take the next step. That's why I want you to go away for a while. Come on! Go away."

 _Oh my_... that was the reason... Fenton wanted to kick himself. He’d misjudged Dr. Gearloose, who only tried to help him, wanting the Hispanic duck to be prepared for when the time for the rescue came. How could he be so blind as not to see that Mr. McDuck's scientist was trying to help him? How foolish!

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving." he said embarrassedly. After these words the brown plumage duck headed towards the elevator. When he got there, he turned around and after clearing his throat, said:

"Dr. Gearloose, sorry to have behaved like a complete imbecile. I’m sorry for everything I’ve told you. Forgive me for my daring and stupidity, please.”

Fenton watched Dr. Gearloose's eyes widen in surprise. The chicken quickly shook his head and tried to cover it though. Looking away he replied:

"There is nothing to forgive. It’s normal to act so irresponsibly when someone we care about is in danger. Believe me. I’ve seen it before."

The scientist then looked at him and added:

"Actually, I was thinking you'd better not come back. I mean, we'll take care of getting the location for you. When you've cleared your mind, go see the McDuck family, dressed in Gizmoduck suit obviously. Tell them to get ready for the rescue mission and wait there for us to send you the location, so you can leave immediately."

Fenton smiled slightly. Despite not showing it, it seemed that his boss appreciated his apology. Although he didn’t understand his words when he said that he had seen it before. When? How and with whom had he seen it exactly? Well, the scientist probably wouldn't tell him, even if Fenton asked. Specially knowing that Dr. Gearloose was very reserved about certain aspects... like that, for example.

On the other hand… the proposal he’d suggested, truly could help them earn time. So, after a brief nod, the Hispanic duck replied:

"Yes Dr. Gearloose, I’ll do so."

* * *

Fenton left the lab and tried to clear his head. He’d patrolled the city, stopped the Beagle Boys from stealing a jewelry store, arrested a couple of thugs who were trying to steal from helpless old ladies... yeah, ordinary hero duties.

After finishing his patrol, the robotic superhero had immediately headed to the mansion to convey Dr. Gearloose's message. No need to say that Scrooge immediately began to order everyone to prepare. He sent Launchpad to get the plane ready. To his housekeeper he ordered to prepare the equipment that she might consider necessary for the rescue. He asked his ghost butler to watch the children.

_A ghost butler!_

Who’d have a ghost butler? Okay, Scrooge McDuck would. To be honest, the last time Fenton was there, he was so tired that didn’t even realized that the ghost was there. And about his nephew... Scrooge asked him to calm down, because since Fenton gave them the news, the duck dressed as a sailor hadn’t been able to remain quiet or silent. He was demanding _every five seconds_ that they should leave immediately. He couldn’t stop asking if everything was ready to go for Huey.

Seriously, seeing Huey's uncle in that state, Fenton understood why Gyro had 'kicked him' out of the lab. Donald seemed on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown, er… maybe better say, an anxiety attack? Well, whatever it was, the unintelligible-speaking duck didn't seem to be able to calm down, and his over-movement got to the point that even Scrooge had to step in saying:

"Oh, curse me kilts Donald, calm down fer once."

"But Uncle Scrooge, if we already know where Huey is, why don't we go find him now?" replied the younger of the two ducks.

Fenton felt guilty at what that duck had just said. Perhaps he hadn’t explained himself well, and now Donald believed that the superhero duck already had Huey's location? He had to clarify the situation. He did so by answering the question:

"Because we still don't know where he is."

Donald turned to look at him with a mixture of surprise and anger on his face... more anger than surprise, actually. Speaking angrily, he asked:

"What?"

Fenton raised his hands, and then explained:

"Dr. Gearloose will send us the location as soon as he has it. But until then, we have to wait."

"Does that mean that when you have the location, we’ll go find Huey?" suddenly asked an excited voice. The adults turned to the voice’s origin and there they saw the two remaining triplets, their friend and Duckworth with a worried expression on his face. It seemed (and was only an assumption) that the children had heard something about the whole thing and had quickly come forward to take part in whatever it was.

That thought must have been shared with Mr. McDuck because he suddenly approached the children, hit the ground with his cane, and told them:

"No, Beakley, your uncle Donald, Gizmoduck and I... and Launchpad obviously since he is the pilot will go. Ye lads will stay here.”

The kids’ reactions were not long in coming:

"What?!"

"No way!"

“We’re coming too!”

From his position, Fenton saw Scrooge squint and speak loudly to the children:

"Absolutely not! Ye don't come."

"Why not?" Dewey asked, and his brother quickly added:

"Huey is our brother!"

Mr. McDuck closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He opened his eyes again, looked compassionately at his grand-nephews and the girl who was with them (Fenton still didn't know what her name was, or what relationship she had with the family) and in a soft but firm voice he said:

"Precisely because of that. We don't know in what condition Huey is, we don't want ye to see him until we’re sure that he’s fine.”

Dewey, who Fenton had already assumed was the most impulsive kid, jumped up almost instantly saying:

"That’s not fair!"

The old duck sighed again and looking sadly, said:

"Sorry lads, but it’s the best for you."

"How can you be so sure?" the green-dressed triplet suddenly asked, crossing his arms. The duck in the top hat looked at the boy and opened his beak to reply, but before he could, Donald spoke up:

"Enough boys! Uncle Scrooge is right. We’ll take care of bringing Huey back, I promise you. Now, go wait in your room."

The children looked at the sailor-dressed duck. He looked at them with a stern frown, but also with evident concern on his features. It was clear that he wasn’t happy with what he was saying, but it wasn’t as if he had any other option apparently.

Realizing it was a losing battle, the children lowered their heads and left the room. Almost instantly, the phone embedded in Gizmoduck's helmet (Huey's idea and that Fenton had already implemented in the suit) began to ring. The Hispanic duck immediately answered the call.

"Hello?... yes. Dr. Gearloose it’s me... yes. I hear you... yes... yes... copy that. Thanks, and goodbye."

As soon as the conversation ended, he turned to the other two ducks there, both looking at him expectantly, then Mr. McDuck asked:

“It was Gyro, wasn't it? Well? What did he say?"

Straightening his stance, the superhero answered the question:

"We have the location!"

The billionaire duck's face took on a deeply determined expression. He said:

"Perfect lad. Okay, let's not waste time. Let's go there immediately."

Gizmoduck smiled. Mr. McDuck was right. There was no time to waste. Leaving quickly, they all headed to the plane, where Fenton notified Launchpad of their destination. After confirming the location, the pilot started the engine and the plane began to move. It increased speed, and soon they were going to take off. Fenton looked out the window and saw something that surprised and confused him.

The family’s ghost butler was flying as fast as he could towards the plane. He looked alarmed and was signaling to them, but it was too late. The plane had just separated from the ground and was rising rapidly. It was going through the sky towards their destination. Heading to Huey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I really liked Gyro here, he had his moment. Did you like it? I've to admit at the beggining I didn't like Gyro, but as time passed, I grow up with him, and he's become a great character to me. I feel he cares about others but he doesn't like to show it (and after Astroboyd we can understand why I guess).   
> Now at the end of the chapter, I guess all of you imagine why Duckworth was flying trying to stop the plane, can't you?
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	23. These ducks don’t back down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’m sorry I’m late. Today is a very special Holiday for us, so I had a busy morning, and in addition, will be moving (hopefully soon) to a new house, and to show this house to our family, we’ve celebrated a little party there, which has finished recently. On the other side, I guess you all know the news. DUCKTALES IS COMING BACK ON SEPTEMBER 21th! WOO-OO!!!
> 
> Okay, after that, as every week, here you have a new chapter! This chapter takes place a few hours before Gizmoduck comes to McDuck manor. Also, for this chapter I’ve decided to rescue a POV I haven’t use for a while. Also, if I’m not wrong, this is the… second time where Launchpad properly appears. I think I’ve him a little forgotten. Anyways, I hope I’ll like the chapter 😉  
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!  
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Dewey would be lying if he said he didn't feel like everything and everyone in the mansion had been falling apart since Huey disappeared. First, there was the dream he and Louie had a few days ago regarding what Huey was experiencing. Dewey would like to forget this dream if he could, but it seemed permanently inscribed in his memory banks.

The dream still affected him. Seeing his brother locked in that space, so thin and desperate to get out of there... seeing how Graves was looking at him. Seeing how little food they gave him… but above all, nobody talking to him... Dewey wouldn’t have lasted so much time without talking to anyone. He knew it perfectly well. How had his brother been able to resist so much? It was a mystery.

Then there was what happened after the adults saw what Gyro and his team had brought. Dewey, despite the fact that the children weren’t allowed to see it, could imagine what was in the files they had brought. Gyro, Fenton and Manny had basically already said it... or so Dewey believed, because after showing them exactly what they had found, Dewey saw his uncle Donald walk out of Scrooge's office completely white... whiter than normal. He looked like a specter. Like an... automaton moving aimlessly. What had his uncle seen?

 _"Uncle Donald?"_ He remembered asking. But his uncle didn’t answer. He didn’t react. He didn’t even looked at him when the boy asked the question.

 _"Uncle Donald, are you okay?"_ Dewey repeated. But again, the adult duck didn’t answer. He was still staring blankly, contemplating some indeterminate space.

Why did his uncle seem so affected? What had Scrooge's scientists shown them? Dewey remembered sharing a worried look with Louie and Webby. His uncle Donald seemed... to be... a living dead duck...

 _"Wow, he looks like a zombie."_ Louie muttered, and Dewey couldn't have agreed more with that description. That really was what his uncle Donald looked like. Much to the children's dismay.

And so, it had continued for the rest of that day. The two youngest triplets had tried their best to get their uncle Donald back to normal, to make him react, but it was totally useless. In addition, on the same night team Science came in, he and Louie had dreamed about Huey again. This time they had even spoken to him! A great achievement if he was allowed to say so. Naturally, the next morning, the two younger brothers had immediately gone to notify Scrooge of this new event. They decided to first tell their great-uncle Scrooge because they assumed that uncle Donald was still acting like a zombie. No, they couldn't tell that dream to him, it would just sink him even deeper.

What Dewey didn’t fully understand was that after telling his dream to uncle Scrooge, the rich duck had thrown them both out of his room. Especially after telling him that in his dream, Huey was dressed as Beaks. For what reason had he done that? Was that detail related with the information that the kids were allowed to see? What did Scrooge know that they didn’t? Why couldn't they know?

It’s been five whole days since that dream. Fortunately, their uncle Donald seemed to have recovered from his zombie status. Or, having overcome his shock, as Mrs. Beakley called it.

As with every day, Dewey had got up without wanting to do anything, something strange for Dewey. But that's the way it was. He felt like doing absolutely nothing. Yet another sign that things weren’t going well at the mansion. But... Dewey felt that nothing would improve until Huey returned home. No, until his brother was safe, he couldn't-

"What are you planning to do today?"

Dewey jumped at his brother's sudden question, but tried to hide it quickly and was quick to reply:

"Well I’ll... do as always I guess, sit down and wait to see if hopefully we receive news from our brother."

Louie, raising his fist high and with a bored expression, said:

"Woo-hoo, it looks like a great plan."

Dewey looked away. He couldn’t see outwardly how his younger brother felt, but inwardly he did and the truth... the middle triplet didn’t know how to comfort or help his little brother. It was Huey who always consoled them both when they needed it. But, to be honest, Dewey didn’t even know how to do it.

After a few silent moments, he finally managed to say:

"I know. What are you going to do?"

Louie didn't even look at him, just shrugged his shoulders and tiredly replied:

"I guess the same as you."

The bedroom door slammed open, causing the two children to jump. The open door was preceded almost instantly by the housekeeper's granddaughter’s scream who, speaking with much enthusiasm, perhaps excessive:

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Webby." the boys responded dully. Dewey quickly realized that Webby had a huge smile on his face.

 _Oh, oh,_ whenever Webby smiled like that it was because she was planning something and Dewey feared he would soon find out. It was demonstrated when the girl explained:

"I just came up with something we can do."

"Do what?" the two brothers asked, although without any real motivation do whatever she proposed. The young girl, who seemed not to have noticed the disappointed tone of her friends, continued talking excitedly as she explained:

"We know that Gyro and his team are trying to find Huey through Beaks‘ GPS, right?"

At this point, Dewey raised an eyebrow and, unsure of where this was going, simply replied:

"... yes..."

"What are you thinking about Webby?" Louie asked, sitting up from where he was lying. Webby smiled even more than before, cleared her throat and gestured in a Web-unique way, proposed:

"Well, how about we try to find out where Beaks hides Huey on our own?"

Standing up, Louie spoke before Dewey could even think of anything to say. He said:

"Really? And how do you plan to do that Webby?”

"We could go to Waddle and sneak into his car," the young girl replied, slightly puzzled by the tone Louie used to ask her. Dewey looked at Webby and then at Louie. After sighing, he thought that for once he had to be the voice of reason, although he would never admit that to Huey of course. So, approaching Webby, he put a hand on her shoulder and said:

"Webby... I don't think that's possible..."

"Why not?" the girl asked suddenly annoyedly. Dewey backed unprepared for her defensiveness.

"Er..."

Dewey heard his brother sigh and then he explained:

"Because Beaks probably... no, he for sure has cameras in his building, don't you think he would see us coming if we tried to get into his car?"

"He won't see us if we're careful." the housekeeper's granddaughter tried to argue, but that statement didn’t seem to convince Louie, who, crossing his arms, spoke again:

"Maybe, but Beaks knows us. He’ll recognize us the moment he sees us and will probably think we are up to something."

Webby let out an annoyed snort. It seemed she didn't expect to meet such resistance from the two brothers. But honestly, from the three of them, the only one who could accomplish what she was proposing, was Webby herself.

Even then, Webby didn’t seem ready to give up, because she continued:

"I don't think he'll see us if we get-"

But she couldn’t finish her proposal because this time it was Dewey who interrupted her by saying:

"Webby stop it, stop it at once, we can't do anything."

Webby turned to look at him with wide eyes, it was as if the young girl couldn’t believe what she had just heard from her friend. Webby's gaze shifted from one duckling to the other, and suddenly, her brow furrowed. This time she was speaking angrily, lecturing them both:

"And what are you going to do then? Just wait? Sit around all day? It is your brother who is missing! If I were in your place, I would go out of my way to find him!”

Dewey was surprised by the young girl's sudden outburst, he really… he hadn't expected that. Although, on the other hand, Webby was right. Huey was missing, and doing nothing was the same as abandoning him. If they could do something, however little, to find him, they couldn’t miss this opportunity. Huey wouldn’t be sitting around like they were. Dewey was ashamed of himself. Had he really given up? If the answer was yes, it would be the same as saying that he no longer expected Huey to return one day.

The middle triplet looked at his younger brother, who seemed as confused and ashamed as he was, and looking again at his friend, finally replied:

"You're right Webby... as always."

Webby's glare disappeared and a soft smile replaced it. At that moment, Louie approached the other two ducklings and rubbing his hands together in a ready-to-scheme fashion. He asked:

"Okay, where do we start?"

* * *

For the next… hour or two, Dewey didn't even know how long they'd been on it, the three ducklings set about wuietly discussed the best way to sneak into Beaks' car, Webby naturally proposed doing so by executing intricate and complex espionage moves that her grandmother had taught her… something that neither he nor Louie (although Dewey would never admit it) were capable of.

While they were discussing that, Louie got tired and momentarily went to the window to distract himself. There, he saw Gizmoduck land in the driveway. He quickly alerted to the others that Gizmoduck had just arrived. If the superhero was there, it could only mean that they finally had news of Huey, hadn’t they? Why else would he be here?

The children's suspicions were confirmed when Duckworth appeared breaking through a wall saying that he had been sent to watch over them. Naturally, the children didn’t believe that, not even remotely. They ran right through the ghost butler and hurried down to the living room, where they discovered what was obviously Gizmoduck relaying news about Huey’s whereabouts. 

Dewey couldn't contain his excitement. They were closer than ever to finding and rescuing his oldest brother! Unfortunately for him, it felt like a bucket of ice water was being thrown at him when the adults announced that none of the children would participate in the rescue mission. it wasn’t fair! They wanted to help collaborate. They resisted as much as they could until it was their uncle Donald who told them they couldn't go with them.

It was only their Uncle Donald that could make them leave the room. Although at this point, Dewey wasn’t willing to surrender. No way, no how. And even less so after what Webby had said to him and Louie. As soon as they had left the room and were out of earshot, the triplet dressed in blue gathered his siblings in a huddle and said:

"We’ve got to get on the plane before the adults do it."

Webby turned to look at him and asked:

"So how do you expect to do that if Duckworth is following us?"

"Leave that to me." Louie answered from Dewey's other side. He then turned to the butler and with an innocent voice and a confident smile on his face, said:

“Duckworth, we're a little hungry. Could you get us some cookies or something to eat in the room please? We’ll go there and wait for you.”

The butler raised an eyebrow and speaking in his usual voice, albeit with a slight, barely noticeable, sarcastic touch, said:

"I hope this is not a bluff to get rid of my young Louie."

"Pfff, what? No way.” Louie shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt and closed his eyes, still smiling, as he always did when he was bluffing. If it wasn’t because he and Huey already knew, Dewey would probably have fallen into that trap more than once... actually... the middle triplet had fallen more than once into his brother's scams. Although, being fair, Huey used to believe Louie's lies in a much higher proportion than Dewey ever did. 

The younger triplet then opened his eyes and, taking one of his hands out of his pocket, he put it on the back of his immediate older brother and said:

"Can't you hear Dewey's stomach? My poor brother is starving. And you know how bad it is when Dewey is hungry, don’t you?”

Needless to say, Dewey was shocked when he heard a noise much like a hungry stomach coming from... from him? But how…? From Duckworth's face he must have heard it too, because with a slight tone of nervousness, he said next:

"... Yes, some of that has reached my ears."

Louie's smile grew and in a voice that anticipated victory, he then said to the butler:

"So, you can see that what I say is true. Go get something to eat please, we’ll wait for you."

Duckworth nodded and flew straight for the kitchen. As soon as the ghost disappeared, Webby turned to the youngest of the triplets and cheerfully said:

"I wonder if he'll bring us chocolate chip cookies... or coconut cookies... maybe he'll bring them ginger-"

"Webby, that was to distract him, now we can sneak onto the plane." said Louie, interrupting her.

Louie removed his hand from his brother's back and then Dewey realized. Louie had his phone in his hand and had used it to reproduce the sounds of a hungry stomach. Naturally he had put it on his back to pretend that it was Dewey who was hungry, something... dishonest, but certainly realistic, since it was Dewey who was always the hungriest of the three brothers.

Dewey jumped slightly when Webby's voice sounded again:

"Oh, oh yes, to distract him, anyone would have noticed... hehe."

Dewey shook his head; they had fooled Duckworth. There was no time to lose! With a determined voice, the duck dressed in blue said:

"Well, let's not waste any more time. We have a plane to catch."

* * *

Getting into the plane without anyone seeing them was incredibly easy. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long for the other passengers to arrive and the plane to get going. They had succeeded! They were on the plane! They were going to help rescue Huey! All they had to do was keep themselves hidden until-

"Kids? What are you doing here?”

 _Oh Phooey_ , why did Mrs. Beakley have to come too? Why a spy? It wasn’t fair! Almost instantly, uncle Donald’s voice was heard when the now hysterical duck shouted:

"What?! Are the boys here?”

There was no point in them hiding anymore, so, coming out of their hiding place, the children sheepishly greeted them, saying:

"Hello Uncle Donald. Hello Uncle Scrooge."

"Hello Granny."

Dewey saw his great-uncle slap his forehead as he said irritated:

"Oh, curse me kilts lads. What have you done?"

How could he ask that? It was obvious, isn’t it? Crossing his arms, the blue-dressed duckling answered with another question:

"What do you think?"

"We are here because we want to help rescue Huey." added Louie, folding his arms as well.

Shaking his head, Beakley spoke:

"What about Duckworth?"

The children looked at each other and then Dewey began to respond awkwardly:

"He... stayed in... the... kitchen."

The middle triplet could hear his little brother sigh and most likely had closed his eyes too. Then the youngest triplet said:

"We mislead him so we can sneak onto the plane."

"Wow, now I understand why that ghost tried to stop us from taking off." said Gizmoduck suddenly. Dewey had forgotten that the superhero would be here too. Quite obvious, though, considering that they had long known that, when the time came, he would be a part of the rescue team.

Ignoring Gizmoduck’s comment, the youngest triplet looked at his uncles and Mrs. Beakley and seriously said:

“Look, we know that you don’t want us to be involved in all this, but you can’t prevent us from doing everything in our power to help rescue our brother. We won’t abandon him.”

Dewey smiled proudly and looking at his little brother, praised him saying:

"Well said Louie."

Scrooge and Donald looked at each other and then at the kids. Scrooge said:

"Well, it’s too late to go back, we’ve no choice but to take ye with us. We’ll decide what to do when we get there. "

Dewey looked at his brother and Webby with a huge smile. They had succeeded! They would be part of the rescue team! Dewey was so excited that he could almost feel Huey back there with them. He just hoped that feeling would soon become a reality-

Suddenly the plane staggered, causing them all to fall- Almost instantly a loud crash indicated that true to form, Launchpad had crashed.

As everyone tried to get up, the pilot announced cheerfully:

"We’re here!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After all the time passed, and especially after their second dream I guessed the boys started losing hope. Thankfully they had Webby to cheer them up. Did you liked how Louie managed to help them sneak into the plane? And Beakley finding the, I’ve to admit this part was funny to write, as well as the end of the chapter with Launchpad crashing the plane… again. Did you like the chapter? If so, you can leave a review, I always love to know what you think about it!
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	24. What is real?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’ve the new chapter here! This one – just to be sure it won’t be confusing – takes place more than less when Beaks arrives to the building where he’s hiding Huey. I’ll be honest, while writing the story, an idea came to my mind that I really wanted to write, and this idea appears in this chapter. Anyways, I hope I’ll like the chapter 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Huey had been trying to sleep. To be honest, he couldn’t tell if he had slept a little or not at all. His head ached terribly. Although he didn’t want to say anything to Graves, because he knew that the hawk would ignore him. More likely he would make fun of him if he told him.

_"You are really pathetic."_

_"I don't wonder if nobody can stand you."_

Surely, he’d say something like that. Lying on the hard ground, the older triplet raised his hands to his head, the chains connected in his hands clinking in the process.

_"If you thought that someone in your family loved you, then you are the naivest duck in the world."_

He knew it was Graves who said those things. But at this point he couldn't stop thinking that, somehow, what the hawk said was what his family really thought. Could it be that they didn't love him? Why? Had he done something wrong? Tears began to form in his eyes, and he knew they would soon be free without him being able to stop them.

_"You're just a cry-baby."_

Huey hurriedly rubbed his eyes.

_"Nobody likes people who don’t know how to contain their tears."_

Of all the things Graves told him, those were some that he could try to avoid hearing from him again.

_"Nobody cares about you."_

_"You don't deserve to waste time with you."_

Huey sighed shakily. That… seemed to be true because, if it wasn’t, he couldn't understand why his family hadn't found him yet.

_"No one wants you by their side."_

_"Everyone is better without you."_

Huey squeezed his eyes, was he so despicable? He knew that many times his brothers had been pretending when they "showed" interest in something that the older triplet told them, especially when it was about the Junior Woodchucks, but that didn’t mean they didn’t want to be with him... Why did Graves tell him those things? Agh, his headache was making it so hard to think clearly. 

Suddenly the duckling heard the sound of the door lock opening. Oh no… it was Graves again, he was sure. Who would he be disguised as this time? What horrible words was he going to say to him? Just thinking about it made Huey tremble.

The door finally opened, and the older triplet couldn't deny that he was confused when he saw Beaks appear through the door. Actually, he was relieved to see the Waddle’s CEO. He profusely thanked the parrot, especially when Beaks took off the chains Graves had put on him right after burning his cap.

His cap... Huey felt... naked now without his cap. He didn't understand why the hawk would do something like that to him. What was he trying to achieve with that?

_"I'm going to teach you a lesson."_

That was what Graves had told him. But the boy still didn’t understand what kind of lesson was involved in burning his precious garment.

Everything Graves had told him... everything he had done to him, all the pain and anguish he had felt since Beaks disappeared the last time, made the boy feel the need to throw himself into Mark's arms when he finally released him. The poor duckling desperately needed comfort, and believed only Beaks could provide it.

* * *

Mark brought him to the room where he slept the last time Beaks was there with him, after the CEO let him clean up and feed him, just like the last time. Once there, Beaks tried to get Huey to tell him what had happened. But... Huey... he didn't... he didn't consider himself important enough for Beaks to take care of his problems.

Actually, he didn't want to say anything to Beaks because, although the duckling tried hard to ignore his words, he couldn't help but begin to... believe in what Graves was saying. He was starting to think it was true, that he... was useless, and that his his family knew it and for that reason... they didn't want him. But, on the other hand, they were his family, how could they not love him? It was all... very confusing for the duckling, and every visit from Graves to his cell had only made matters worse.

After a little insistence from Beaks, Huey finally agreed to tell him what had happened, but in doing so, that only brought him more confusion. For some reason, it almost seemed that Beaks considered that it was his family who had done that to him and not Graves. In fact, the parrot insisted so much that it even made him doubt that Graves was really to blame for his suffering in recent days.

Huey lowered his head, the poor boy felt very puzzled. He was more lost than before and his headache wasn’t helping at all. Could it be true? Could it be that his family had actually hurt him? No! That was absurd, it couldn't be them! Beaks was wrong! It had been-

"Huey... I think there is a way to... prevent this from happening again." said the parrot suddenly. At those words, Huey looked up at Mark, was what he had just heard true?

"R-Really?" he asked with a touch of emotion. Beaks looked at him and with a soft smile replied:

"Yes."

Huey couldn't help but smile hopefully. If what Beaks was saying was true, that could mean the end of his suffering. The duckling was willing to accept anything in order to avoid being tortured by Graves. He asked:

"How? How could you prevent this from happening again?”

"We can avoid it if you do something for me." replied the Waddle’s CEO. Huey was surprised by that answer. But the idea of being finally free from pain, urged him to continue, so he asked Beaks:

"What... what do I have to do?"

Beaks smiled even more than before and reaching into a bag he was carrying he began to say:

"You just have to..." Then he took out a document and concluded:

"Sign this contract."

Huey's eyes widened with fear as he saw that document that Beaks had just left on the table. It was the same as last time. The one that refused to sign, which caused fury in Mark's eyes and is what made him to be locked in that room in the first place.

The duck dressed in red could feel that his heart rate increased as well as his breathing, would signing this contract really free him from his suffering? What price would he have to pay if he signed that paper? Not knowing what else to do, Huey took the pen Beaks held out to him and slowly and shakily brought it to the paper. What should he do? If he signed the pain would end, Beaks seemed convinced of it... the duckling stopped the tip of the pen a few inches from the paper. He could see the utensil move in his trembling hand. Why was it taking so long to decide?

"Come on, just a signature," said the parrot with a touch of anxiety in his voice.

At those words, Huey approached the pen to that paper, the tip almost making contact with it. If he signed it, everything would end, the pain, the torture... suddenly, an image of his uncle Donald's worried face appeared in his mind. An image of his true uncle, the one he had known for all these years since he hatched.

That image made Huey realize that signing that paper would be treason. He would be betraying his uncle Donald. Someone who had gone out of his way to raise him and his brothers. Realizing the kind of mistake he had been about to make, Huey closed his eyes saying:

"I... I c-can't-" and he was going to explain to Beaks the reason why he couldn't do it, but he couldn’t explain anything because suddenly the gray parrot screamed:

"Why not?!"

Huey suddenly widened his eyes in terror, memories of the last time he refused to sign that document appeared in his mind. Beaks' maddened gaze, his threatening voice, his expression of pure hatred... fearing facing all of that a second time, Huey tried to explain quickly saying:

"I-I'm sorry... b-but legally only Uncle Donald could sign it."

Beaks straightened up and after closing his eyes, took several deep breaths, which for Huey was relieved, as that seemed to indicate that Beaks wouldn’t proceed the same way as the other time. Opening his eyes again, Beaks looked at him sadly? It seemed as if the Waddle’s CEO sympathized with him. Almost instantly, the parrot spoke ruefully:

"I'm sorry to have yelled at you Huey. I have... had a stressful day, and what you’ve told me about what they have done to you has left me... very puzzled. I just wanted... to free you, to get you out of this situation forever."

Huey's eyes widened in surprise, why was Beaks speaking in such a confusing way? Why did he speak in plural? If he had told him it was Graves who hurt him. Only him. Why was the parrot trying to make him believe that there was more than one culprit behind his suffering?

Huey gulped. He didn't want to say anything wrong that would make Beaks mad again, so, speaking in a slightly shaky voice, Huey tried again to explain the reasoning behind his decision:

"I know but-"

Unfortunately, the explanation never left his beak since at that moment a loud alarm started to sound. The sudden noise startled the duckling. He didn't understand what was going on. What was that alarm?

Huey focused on Beaks, and saw that the parrot looked at his mobile and the instant he did, his face turned pale. What had Mark seen that had altered him that way? What was going on? The duckling felt that he was beginning to panic. If Beaks was scared that couldn’t be good, could it? His suspicions were confirmed when Beaks looked at him with alarmed and said:

"We have to leave right now Huey. We are in danger!"

Opening his eyes even wider than before, the duckling felt his breathing accelerate, and speaking with slight panic, he asked:

"I-in danger?"

Beaks put his hand on his shoulder, pressing lightly on him, as if he wanted to convey to the boy the situation’s urgency. Then with panic in his voice, he said:

"Yes. Come on, quickly! I'm going to get you out of here.”

"Where will we go?" asked the duckling. He felt his body involuntarily begin to tremble with fear. What kind of danger were they facing?

The Waddle’s CEO ignored his question, and instead ran to take the duckling's hand, urging him to stand up and follow him as soon as possible. Beaks seemed genuinely distressed by whatever was 'attacking' them. With the same alarmed tone, he practically yelled:

"Somewhere far from here!"

The urgency in Beaks' voice did nothing to quell Huey's growing anxiety, although that didn't stop him from letting Beaks take him away from there.

As they were walking at a fast pace to leave the room, the duckling gathered all the courage he could, and then asked the gray parrot:

"What’s going on?"

Beaks stopped in front of the door and turned. He bent down to be at the boy’s eye level and answered:

“Now I don't have time to explain it to you Huey! do you trust me?"

The older triplet looked at Beaks with his wide eyes. It was clear that the CEO was very nervous. Whatever was chasing them must be very dangerous. Just thinking about it, made Huey not want to leave Beaks’ side. He wanted the gray parrot to protect him, so, with tremor of voice, caused by fear of the unknown, he replied:

"Y-yes"

Beaks nodded and simply said:

"Well then, come with me, quickly."

And so, the two began to run through the building, with Beaks holding Huey tightly by the hand, something the duck appreciated, since he feared what might happen if the parrot released him.

* * *

The hallways seemed to be unusually long, almost timeless. How could they be longer now than just a little while ago? It was the same hallway they had gone into the room, why did it seem eternal now?

Huey felt his heart pound, although he didn’t know if that was due to his fear, physical exertion or the fact that he was already tired from the beginning. Yes, the duckling was aware that he was in a general exhaustion state caused by lack of sleep, incomplete diet, panic at the emotional abuse he had been suffering, all caused by-

The duckling abruptly interrupted his thoughts when suddenly hit face down on Beaks, who had stopped dead for no apparent reason. The boy rubbed his face with his free hand. Why had Beaks stopped?

Huey turned his gaze to the Waddle’s CEO and saw that his face was ashen, as if he had seen a ghost. What was happening? The duckling decided to peer around Beaks’ legs to see whatever had made him put on that expression and in doing so… he saw them. There, a few yards in front of him were Gizmoduck, his uncle Scrooge, and Webby, all with determined expressions on their faces. What were they doing there? How did they get there in first place?

As soon as he saw them, an emotional storm broke out in Huey's heart. Joy, fear, glee, hatred, gratitude, betrayal, fury, panic... the truth, the boy didn’t know which of those emotions was more predominant. Honestly, he was afraid of which one was going to win. Why, if his family was there, did he feel such conflicting emotions towards them?

In his head, mixed images of everything he had experienced before he was kidnapped had been mixed with the videos Beaks had shown him. The dreams he sometimes had of his family coming to rescue him. Of all the times that Graves had visited him disguised as his loved ones, only this time, it was no longer Graves whom he saw in his memories. It was his family. He heard their voices insulting and belittling him... Huey even saw in that mixed scenes, the images of that dream he had of his brothers talking to him and explaining that Beaks wanted to brainwash him. All those memories and dreams were now distorted and confused.

Such was the mix of faces and situations that Huey had in his head that he could no longer distinguish which ones were real and which ones weren’t. That fact... only aggravated the headache he had been feeling up to that moment, he felt as if it was increasing exponentially. So much so that on a scale of one to ten it would surely be close to the highest number.

The older triplet felt his vision become blurred, and a terrible dizziness took over his being, to this must be added the terrible state of exhaustion in which the duckling was. In fact, the boy felt like he was going to pass out at any moment. Why did he feel like this? Just because had he seen his family? Did that mean that seeing his family was a bad thing after all?

Huey blinked several times trying to stop seeing double. When he managed to stabilize his sight, just at that moment, Gizmoduck advanced a little forward. In doing so, involuntarily Huey's body stiffened, as if somehow, he didn't want the superhero near him. This was absurd! How could he not want to be with Gizmoduck? Huey admired him! He was his friend!

_"You don't even deserve to be fed."_

Huey froze when he remembered that phrase, it was something Graves said the first time he brought him food disguised as Gizmo. The hawk cruelly left the plate far enough away that Huey couldn't reach it. No matter how hard he tried. Huey closed his eyes. The phrase he had just remembered in his head had… sounded like Fenton. Why? Why was he only listening to his family's voices now instead of Graves'? The red-dressed duckling felt his body begin to tremble, causing Beaks to squeeze his hand slightly. He seemed to be trying to calm him. Honestly, Huey appreciated that the gray parrot did that.

"Let him go, Beaks!" Gizmoduck yelled suddenly causing Huey to immediately open his eyes to look at the robotic superhero.

"Sorry what?" Mark said in response to the superhero's words. The older triplet turned his gaze first to Beaks and then to Gizmoduck, he could see the superhero's features harden before he advanced a bit more:

“I said you to free Huey! Let the boy go!”

Releasing his hand, Beaks crossed his arms and calmly said to Gizmoduck:

"Oh, sorry Gizmoduck, I think you don't understand, I'm not holding the boy, he's with me because he wants to."

Huey jumped slightly when the next speaker wasn't Gizmoduck, but Webby. She said:

"That's a lie! Huey would never want to be with you!”

Then his uncle Scrooge added:

"What this parrot says is a lie, isn't it, lad?"

Huey stared at his great-uncle, he could feel his breathing increasing at times, what should he answer? He honestly didn't know, because right now, if he was true to himself, being with Beaks he felt... he felt... safe... and the boy doubted he could say the same about his family.

Huey took a couple of steps back when he saw everyone looking at him waiting for an answer. Swallowing hard, he tried to answer:

"I-I... I..."

But he couldn't, his breathing was abnormally fast, and a feeling of tightness was growing in his chest, preventing him from forming logical and meaningful sentences. The duckling put a hand to his head, as it felt like he had a drum there, beating against his skull relentlessly; and the other went to his chest trying to ease the pain he felt there too.

His state didn’t go unnoticed by the others present, and true to her aware and outgoing nature, Webby was the first to voice what everyone probably wondered:

"Huey, what's wrong with you?"

The duckling heard his friend’s voice, but it sounded like he was submerged underwater, what was happening to him? Suddenly he fell to his knees, causing everyone's immediate reaction:

"HUEY!"

The older triplet fell to the ground, his head facing the side of the hallway that he and Beaks had been running through. Just before the darkness consumed him, he thought he saw his uncle Donald approaching him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I really wanted to explain this part of the story from Huey’s POV, and what I really wanted to write, was Huey being about to sign the contract and what made him not sign it. I hope you all liked it. Also, poor boy, see those who he loves but be afraid of them and fear they’ll hurt him. I think the worst part was Huey remembering what Graves said to him disguised as Gizmoduck but hearing Fenton’s voice. I sure had to be heartbreaking for our loved red-boy. I think I’m making him suffer a lot. Poor boy. Well, did you like the chapter? If so, you can leave a review, I always love to know what you think about it!
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> you in the next chapter 😉


	25. Reunited at last… wait what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’ve the new chapter here! Right now we’re returning to the point where the plane crashed so… yeah, you know what it means, right? Time to find out how will the family do to rescue Huey. Also, in this chapter you’ll get the answer to a long way question made. How did the alarm be turned on. I hope you’ll like the answer. Anyways, I hope I’ll like the chapter 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

When the plane crashed, he thought they were all going to die before even seeing Huey. He should have known that something like this would happen with Launchpad McQuack at the controls. Oh, how different it was to fly when it was his sister who was piloting! She was indeed a real pilot. Avoiding storms that could destroy the plane, doing aerobatics with such mastery that you felt no risk of losing your life, but, above all, she landed so smoothly that you hardly noticed that you had done so.

McQuack instead, seemed to be the opposite. If he saw a storm, instead of avoiding it, he would fly directly towards it. His aerobatic skills were conspicuous by its absence. And each landing, if it could even be called that, was carried out with the almost certain probability of breaking one or more body parts.

To be honest, he didn't understand why Uncle Scrooge allowed the kids to fly with him. More than that, he didn't understand how his Uncle Scrooge would… well, actually, he could expect anything from his uncle, even hiring the worst pilot in history for the sake of being cheap. 

Anyway, this wasn’t the time to complain about it. They were there to fulfill a mission. He couldn’t let a new reason for discussion with his uncle distract him from the important task at hand.

Getting up from where he had fallen when the plane crashed, Donald's first thought was to check how the children were and see if they had been hurt:

"Are you all okay?"

"Yes, we’re fine Uncle Donald." Dewey replied being the first of the children to get up. Louie soon followed his example and stood up saying:

"Yes, I think this landing has been a fairly smooth landing, considering the ones we’ve experienced so far."

Donald’s eyes widened in surprise at those words and before he could hold back, exclaimed:

"What?!"

His uncle, who was also sitting up, hastened to calm his upset nephew by saying:

"Donald, don't be upset. Now’s not the time."

The sailor-dressed duck glared at his uncle for a few moments. But soon his features softened and trying to breathe calmly, he said:

"Right, right… so what we have to do-"

Dewey suddenly cut him off saying excitedly:

"What we have to do is burst through the doors showing fear and kick Beaks-"

Again, Donald's eyes widened in horror as he listened to his nephew's plan. No! If they did that, Beaks would quickly find out and run away, probably taking Huey with him before they could find them. What Dewey was proposing wasn’t an option. Donald cut the boy off and said instead:

"No! If that parrot discovers that we are going after him, he could either escape or use Huey against us. We’ve got to be smarter.”

Beakley nodded and looking at Scrooge said:

"I agree with Donald, we cannot simply attack, we must figure out a plan."

The superhero who had come with them, approached the rest of the group and joined the conversation:

"I agree with that, from what I saw, before discovering the children on board and before 'landing', this building here is very similar… rather identical to the Waddle building in Duckburg, so if I'm right, this can be very useful to us.”

And with that said, from the inside of his suit he took out a paper of considerable dimensions. How could he fit it in there? Gizmoduck unfolded that paper and it turned out to be…

"Is this a map of the building?" Webby asked, and Dewey added:

"Where did you get it?"

Looking at the two children, Gizmoduck replied in a slightly embarrassed voice:

"I got it when I was still working for Beaks, before… well, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it. Now let's focus on what's important." Louie said, and honestly, Donald wasn't surprised that he was the one to say that. He knew the youngest of the triplets was one of the most practical children he had ever met. He didn’t say it out of father's pride, but because it was the truth.

The robotic superhero nodded and unfolded the map for all to see. After a brief inspection, Beakley finally straightened up saying:

"From what I see the building has only two exits. it isn’t a very good design, actually."

Webby also got up and looking at Scrooge's housekeeper, asked her puzzled:

"Why not granny?"

The spy woman looked at her granddaughter and answered:

"Strategically speaking, if they were attacked, they would be quickly cornered if the attackers managed to control both exits. Those in the interior would have no escape. Unless, they had a secret exit that doesn’t appear on this map. But I doubt that that is the case.”

Donald frowned and determinedly said:

"That is precisely what we’ll do."

"How? What do you suggest we do lad?” Scrooge asked, arching an eyebrow. Donald looked at him determinate and then explained:

"We’ll divide into two groups and attack the building from both sides. Doing it in that way, Beaks won’t be able to escape and we’ll have a better chance of rescuing Huey."

His uncle Scrooge seemed to agree with the idea because he smiled slightly and crossing his arms said:

"Perfect lad. How should we divide?"

Before Donald could answer the question, Dewey spoke instead:

"I guess now you’ll say that we stay here, won’t you?"

Donald looked at his nephew, and Webby and with a soft smile. He replied to the adults’ great surprise:

"No, actually I think the best thing is for you kids to come too. As for the way to divide, I think the best thing would be for one group to be formed by Uncle Scrooge, Gizmoduck, and Webby and the second group will be formed by Beakley, the boys, and myself.”

Immediately after say that, Launchpad spoke for the first time since landing. He asked:

"And what do I do, Mr. D.?"

Donald looked at him with wide eyes. Honestly… he had forgotten about the pilot. But, on the other hand, there was a mission that only McQuack could carry out. Donald said:

"Launchpad, I think the best thing would be for you to stay watching over the plane and have it ready for when we return with Huey."

Out of the corner of his eye, the sailor-dressed duck saw Beakley smile and, while folding his arms, said:

"Well thought Donald."

Donald turned to her and answered honestly:

"Thank you."

Then he looked at the others and speaking in a determined voice, said:

"Now if we all agree, let's go for Huey!"

"YES!" they all cheered raising their fists.

* * *

Entering the building had been easy. There weren’t guards, nor closed doors, which made their work much easier. It seemed they had stolen some good luck from Gladstone. In Donald’s group, Beakley had decided to take the lead, given his experience in combat. Donald took the decision to put himself in the rear, so that the boys would be protected by both adults.

Beakley was very determined to prevent them from being discovered. She constantly signaled to others by telling them where there were cameras and where they had to go to avoid being caught. It almost seemed she had a sixth sense for detecting cameras. It was amazing!

As they advanced, Donald was constantly looking at his boys, just to make sure they were there and they hadn't… disappeared, too. The sailor-dressed duck knew perfectly well Huey's kidnapping had been planned and executed only against him. But despite knowing it, he could still feel in his heart, the constant fear of losing his other boys, and wasn’t willing to allow that happen again. Not on his guard.

Donald was so deep in thought that he almost jumped when after turning a corner, roughly halfway down the hall, a door opened, revealing Graves was coming out of it. The hawk was surprised to see the intruders there, a few meters from him. He quickly overcame his surprise and faced them.

Beakley had stopped protectively in front of everyone, while Donald ran ahead of his nephews so they were both protected by two adults. Donald wasn’t willing to allow the bird in front of them to harm his boys.

With a smirk on his face, Graves suddenly said:

"Wow, what a surprise. You must be that boy's family."

Donald growled dangerously. His patience was at that moment a very thin line that could be snapped at any moment. To make things worse, the petulant attitude that this… muscular bird showed, did nothing to contain what little patience the adult duck still had. Taking a step forward, Donald said harshly:

"Where's my nephew?! I know it was you who kidnapped him!”

The hawk put a puzzled face at first, like he didn't know what they were talking about, or maybe… maybe he didn't understand what Donald had just asked him… probably the latter. After a few moments, the hawk smiled again and replied:

"Where is he? To be honest, I don’t know. Although I doubt there’s much left of him to rescue."

"What do you mean by that?" asked the adult duck with a mixture of horror and fury in his voice. It wasn’t necessary to look at his other nephews to know that they were most likely feeling the same way he was feeling with what the hawk had just said.

Widening his smile, Graves continued:

"That boy is truly pathetic. Trying for days to cling to the hope someone would come to rescue him at any moment."

Then he laughed out loud and added:

"It was fun to gradually destroy that hope and turn it into fear and hatred towards his family."

Donald narrowed his eyes and speaking in a dangerous voice began to ask:

"How dare you…?"

"We did our best to find our brother, we were… we are very worried for him." said Dewey, stepping forward.

The hawk stared at the children – at his boys – and after giving a snort of amusement, he said:

"Do my ears betray me? You are worried for him? Don't make me laugh, you had a lot of time to find him, and you didn't even know how to do it. Or maybe… you didn't want to do it.”

That was it. That hawk had just signed his death sentence. Donald felt his body tremble with fury, his clenched hands were clenched even tighter, and he knew it wasn't long before there was an explosion. Beakley turned to him and began to say:

"He’s trying to make us mad, Donald, we have to be smarter than him, also, at first glance it seems that this hawk is an expert fighter, I think it would be better if you let me-"

_Too late_

"AQWQWAUQWQHNAUHQWOOANHGAUGHUKKKAHFAU!" The sailor-clad duck suddenly screamed, and instantly adopted his classic fighting stance (maybe he should patent it). After a few small jumps, Donald charged straight for the hawk, who probably didn't expect someone of such a smaller size to start literally spinning around him at full speed, punching him in the head, pulling his beak, kicking him here and there incessantly… and not giving him time to fight back.

In the midst of his fight, he could hear Beakley start to say:

"Wow, I guess Falcon…"

"Didn't take into account Uncle Donald's legendary fury." Dewey finished.

Although he couldn't see it, he imagined Louie had his hands in his sweatshirt’s pockets while saying:

"Yes… I almost feel sorry for him."

Beakley and Dewey should’ve looked at him, because shortly after saying that, Louie added:

"What? Just almost."

During his fight, Donald struck Graves hard. The hawk stumbled backwards, hitting the wall and falling unconscious to the ground. Everything would have been great if it wasn't for hitting the wall, Falcon collided right into a control panel, hitting just one button that triggered a loud and noisy alarm.

_Oh phooey_

His infamous bad luck had struck again.

"Oh, oh, this isn’t good." said Dewey covering his ears, something the others had also done. That alarm would surely set Beaks in motion, Donald looked at the others and said alarmedly:

"Let's hurry up! We’ve got to find Huey!” 

And without wasting time they all started running down the corridors, knowing that it was absurd to kept a low profile. Donald didn't know how long they had actually been running, seconds? Minutes? It was difficult to determine with his heart beating a thousand times an hour in fear of how his nephew would be when they finally found him. Suddenly, as he ran, a screaming voice suddenly reached his ears:

"That's a lie! Huey would never want to be with you!”

That was Webby's voice! It didn't sound far. Did that mean they had found Huey? The idea that they could have found his nephew urged him to run faster. And apparently, he wasn't the only one who believed it. The other members of his group were soon running as fast as he was.

Donald took the lead this time. The mere thought of seeing his missing nephew again, made him quicken his pace and become increasingly separated from Beakley and the children. The sailor-dressed duck turned a corner and, in the distance, he could see Huey. The poor boy had one hand on his head and another on his chest, both clenched tightly, as if he felt pain in both places.

Looking at him a little more closely, the adult duck saw that his nephew was breathing very fast, it seemed like… as if… he was having a panic attack! No! He had to calm him down as soon as possible! Suddenly, the red-dressed duckling fell to his knees.

_No, no, no, no!_

"HUEY!" shouted Donald, speeding up his run. His nephew needed him! He needed him now!

The older triplet then fell to the ground. Donald saw how his eyes looked at him momentarily and there seemed to be a spark of recognition in them. Huey had seen him! Almost instantly afterward, his eyelids closed and the boy seemed unconscious. What had happened to his nephew to end up in that state? Donald sped up even more if that was possible. He had to get to his nephew, check how he was doing- he had to make sure his boy was fine!

Everything else disappeared around Donald. The only thing the sailor-dressed duck could see was the unconscious figure of his nephew on the ground. The adult duck was almost there. He had almost reached his boy! Just by extending his arm he could-

A pair of gray feathered hands suddenly entered his field of vision surrounding Huey's small body. The appearance of those unexpected limbs made Donald stop short. Especially when he realized that his nephew was being lifted off the ground easily, as if he weighed nothing. In fact, from his appearance, Huey's weight it must be much less than would correspond to a child his age. What kind of monster deprived a growing age boy of food? The poor duckling seemed to be practically in his bones… well, maybe saying that was an exaggeration. But really Huey was much thinner than he should be and was close to looking like he was going to starve.

Seeing his nephew like that, Donald had one clear thing. Beaks was going to pay for everything he had done to Huey, that was a promise!

Donald shook his head; this wasn’t the time to think about what he would do to Beaks. The priority at those moments was to get that parrot to release Huey. Looking up to see the brain behind the kidnapping of his nephew, behind all the pain, suffering and despair the boy had suffered during his imprisonment.

There, before his eyes was Mark Beaks with one of his arms surrounding Huey's abdomen while, with his free hand, he was holding a mobile phone near the unconscious duckling's head. The gray parrot looked at them all with evident fury and suddenly screamed:

"Not one more step if you don't want the boy to die!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I think someone said it was Graves who activated the alarm. To this person, yes, that was the right answer, but I think no one expected Graves activated it by accident after being had hit like he was by Donald. Did you like it? Was it funny? I thought that by adding a little bit of humor in the story would help a little to everyone’s mind.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!! 
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	26. The urgency of the situation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’ve the new chapter here! I’m sorry it comes a little late, but it’s finally here! Woo-hoo.
> 
> This chapter has a little bit of action, and because of this, I thought the best person to explain this chapter was… you’ll see really soon 😉. Anyways, I hope I’ll like the chapter 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

This was bad. More than bad, it was catastrophic! It couldn't be worse. Huey… he was unconscious, and didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon. Not only was he unconscious, but he was also literally in Beaks’ hands. In the hands of the one who had ordered him to be kidnapped. In the hands of who tortured him for days!

Why couldn't it have been a simple rescue mission? Why did they have to have such stumbles when they were so close? It wasn’t fair! Especially for Huey. He didn’t deserve to be here. He didn’t deserve to have suffered everything that he had. And all for what? So that Beaks could enact his crazy revenge plot?

Beaks was a monster! A monster that now had the same one he had been tormenting for days in his arms. Using him to threaten all of them. What were they supposed to do in that situation?

The gray parrot stepped back from where he had picked up Huey, probably to gain some distance from Donald, who was now steaming from his ears. Okay, everyone had to admit the intense gaze of the sailor-dressed duck would frighten even the bravest men.

" Not one more step if you don't want the boy to die!" the CEO yelled with a hint of panic evident in his voice.

Behind Donald, Webby saw the other two triplets and her granny come running up. And the young girl wasn’t surprised when Dewey and Louie expressed deep horror when they saw what condition their brother was in.

The girl with the bow in her hair was sure both brothers were dismayed… no, more than that, stricken to see the worn state in which Huey was. At least she saw him before he lost consciousness, although even then he seemed afraid of them. His fear probably would’ve been even more discouraging to them. But to Webby, the fact he blacked out was extremely worrying. She feared for Huey’s health.

Beaks turned to look in the direction she, Gizmoduck, and Uncle Scrooge were. His eyes reflected that of a cornered animal. He was completely surrounded. And his only shield was Huey.

"I said don't take another step!" he screamed with a hint of panic in his voice. That scream only caused Webby's muscles to tense.

Her granny told her once that a trapped animal was the most dangerous of animals. You couldn’t foresee how it would react, and they would do anything to escape. They had to be careful with their movements, or it will be Huey who would suffer for their mistakes.

Uncle Scrooge stepped forward and, leaning on his cane with both hands, said authoritatively:

"Ye're trapped Beaks, let the lad go."

Beaks narrowed his eyes, turning to face the billionaire duck. Although he frequently glanced back in case someone tried to attack him. The CEO then said:

"I think not Scrooge. If I let him go I’ve no way of escaping way." he turned his gaze towards the older triplet "with him… I’ve a chance, and we both know that."

Webby's eyes widened in horror at those words. That bird seemed very convinced that with Huey he would escape from there. Perhaps because in the state in which the duckling was, nobody would dare to do something that would aggravate his situation.

Webby wasn’t the only one to be upset by Beaks' words, as almost instantly when he said that, both Dewey and Louie and she jumped forward shouting:

"Haven't you hurt him enough already?!"

"Let it go!"

"Please… he's my brother."

Louie was the last to speak, and at his plea to Beaks for the parrot to release the red-dressed duckling, the latter turned to look at him and said with a touch of humor in his voice:

"Boy, I doubt he believes it anymore."

Those words seemed to further infuriate both Donald and Scrooge as they both made to move toward Beaks, prompting the parrot to straighten up at once screaming:

"I said stay away!"

And he pressed his phone even more against the unconscious duckling's temple. They all backed off a bit, but didn't give Beaks a gap to escape. They weren't going to give him that chance.

Despite moving away, the gray parrot didn’t relax in the slightest, and continued to hold his mobile against Huey's head. If it continued like this, it would leave a mark or something similar.

Suddenly, the girl with a bow in her hair saw her honorary great-uncle frown and after taking a deep breath, said to the other bird:

“Threatening my nephew with a mobile phone? What harm do ye hope to do with that?”

Mark Beaks turned to look at him, and Webby could see at once he looked surprised, but soon he smiled and shaking his head said to the duck in a top hat:

"Oh Scrooge, how little do you know about technology! With this mobile I can kill him here and now if it pleases me.”

The young girl's heart began to pound, how could Beaks do that with his mobile? Apparently, she wasn’t the only one wondering that, because almost instantly Donald exclaimed aloud:

"What? How would that work?”

Beaks turned to and explained cheerfully:

“Very simple, thanks to an application programmed by me, my phone will emit a sound at very high frequency. That frequency is outside our hearing range,, but for the receiving brain, this frequency will make the brain resonate, that is, it’ll literally melt it."

Webby's eyes widened in surprise and in complete shock and speaking at the same time as everyone else present, she exclaimed alarmedly:

"What?!"

The parrot smiled, seeming to be enjoying the situation immensely. It only made Webby feel every second more like kicking that guy in the face. Beaks spoke again, and his voice was still as jovial and carefree as before. He said:

"Basically, if you don't let me go, I will turn this boy's brain into soup."

Her granny, who was probably the only one who hadn’t said anything yet, took a step forward and asked the deranged parrot:

“But… given how close you are to the phone; you would also be affected by this frequency. You would also die! Which means you won't do it."

Beaks turned to look at her. He seemed surprised that someone had been able to counter his arguments. It was evident he didn’t know her granny. Best granny in the world. Webby smiled with pride, her grandmother had just taken down the lantern that Beaks had ridden to escape.

However, the moment of joy was short-lived when suddenly the gray parrot gave a short laugh and explained:

"Do you… do you think I didn't take that into account? I designed it in such a way that it affected a very short distance from the origin point. It’s practically needed to be in contact with the mobile, just as Huey's head is now.”

"How do we know you aren’t lying?" Gizmoduck asked suddenly, rolling a little closer to the villain. The Waddle CEO turned to look at him and arrogantly replied:

“Oh, believe me. I'm not lying, I wouldn't risk doing something that would put my own life at risk. Also, if this fails, I still have other functions in this phone that can serve me. For example nerve gas, of which I naturally have an antidote only for me. Can you imagine Huey being a victim of nerve gas? I think you don't want that.”

Everyone stared at the gray parrot in shock, this bird was crazy! How could he threaten someone with something as dangerous as nerve gas? Webby knew from her granny this gas attacked the nervous system, hence the name, paralyzing the body and causing it to spasm and eventually… no! Beaks couldn't be serious!

The CEO smirked at their faces. He said:

"I imagined it."

The girl with the bow in her hair saw Donald growl. You could almost feel his anger growing at times, something that Mark seemed to ignore, because speaking in the same cheerful and threatening tone, the gray parrot threw his head towards back and kept talking without any shame or remorse:

"And besides, I also have a taser function. If you think that these two things are exaggerations of mine, I may can electrocute the boy before you until he dies. Of course, I warn you it would be long and painful… for him, of course, because, although he is unconscious, still feels the pain."

It was official, they had to take the phone from Beaks! Without it, he couldn’t continue threatening Huey's life. It was imperative that the device be taken from that parrot.

Looking at the other two triplets, they both nodded looking at her too. Webby smiled, they had both come to the same conclusion as her. All they needed an opportunity, a distraction on Beaks' part to snatch his phone

"Beaks you’re a monster!" Gizmoduck yelled suddenly. The force of the scream made everyone look at him in surprise. But the superhero only seemed to have eyes for the villain he had just yelled at.

The Waddle CEO looked at Gizmoduck with hatred and then yelled angrily:

“Maybe, but the boy is my ticket out of here. And I won't lose it! Now… where is Graves?”

"Missing in action," Louie said casually. From his tone it might’ve been a joke, but the green-dressed triplet was frowning and was looking at the CEO with a furious expression, as if indicating to Beaks there was no trick or deception in his words.

Beaks turned to him with a powerful scream:

"What?!"

Dewey stepped forward, like he wanted to protect his brother. Then explained to Beaks:

"He has been knocked out. And I think he will be out for a while."

Beaks's eyes widened in surprise and then he exclaimed:

"How did this happen?! No matter, I’ll review it later with the security cameras.”

The gray parrot closed his eyes, shaking his head. This was the time to attack! Webby ran and after standing next to Beaks, without him realizing it, the young girld did a back flip with which she hit the electronic device, causing it to jump through the air.

"My phone!" Beaks cried. The gray parrot directed a furious gaze first at the person who had attacked him, and immediately afterwards at the apparatus that had been his leverage against those who surrounded him. Obviously, he seemed ready to lunge for it, but Webby had other plans in mind.

Landing on three of her limbs, she turned to Gizmoduck and shouted:

"Now!"

The superhero seemed surprised at first, but he soon understood what Webby was telling him to do. After a brief nod, Gizmoduck reached out his robotic arms to grab Huey, freeing him from Beaks’ captivity. The parrot's eyes widened in surprise when his protection was suddenly wrenched from his grasp.

"Damn!" he cursed, realizing what that meant.

Webby smiled. Huey was safe, out of reach. Now there was nothing to protect Beaks from the legendary fury of of the McDuck clan.

As if he knew what awaited him, the CEO looked at Donald with fear because the sailor-dressed duck had taken half a second to approach the gray parrot. Once in front of him, the angry uncle began to say dangerously:

"You kidnapped one of my boys. Tortured him. Made him believe we didn't love him. Threatened to kill him in front of us. You don't deserve to live!"

The girl dressed in pink saw how the gray parrot began to tremble visibly at Donald's voice and intense gaze. Then tremblingly, began to say:

"N-no please don't kill me"

_Oh, oh, had he dared to…?_

The sailor-dressed duck roared and pinned Beaks against a wall with his forearm, Donald yelled in his face:

"I'm going to make you pay for everything you've done to my nephew!"

Webby widened his eyes in fear. She knew Donald's fury was something to be feared, but… what would this fury be like applied to someone who knew perfectly well he had harmed his family? The young girl opened her beak to say something, but before she could do it, Scrooge came before her saying in a powerful voice:

"Lad!"

Donald didn't even turn to look at him, kept looking at a trembling Beaks with eyes full of immeasurable rage. Then he shouted for his uncle to listen to him:

"Don't get into this Uncle Scrooge!"

Webby saw the duck in a top hat grumble and approaching his nephew, put his hand on his shoulder and said:

"Donald, I know how you feel. Believe me. But he isn’t important at the moment. Huey is more important. We must check if he is okay."

The eyes of the sailor-dressed duck widened in surprise at those words and after giving a sigh, he closed his eyes and said in a slightly trembling voice:

"You're right Uncle Scrooge."

The top hat duck nodded, causing Webby to release her breath that she didn't know she had been holding. To be honest, the young girl had feared her friends' uncle would do something he would regret later.

Suddenly Uncle Scrooge turned to her granny and called to her:

"Beakley?"

She nodded and replied:

"Yes, Mr. McDuck. I'll take care of the culprit. Go attend to Huey."

Webby looked to where Gizmoduck and Huey were. Dewey and Louie had already been there as well. Running to join her friends, the young girl saw Huey had been laid on the ground on his back. The head of the older triplet was slumped to the side, A pained expression adorning his features, and his breathing fast and shaky, as if he was having trouble bringing air to his lungs. He seemed… so weak, small, hurt… how could Beaks do something like that to him?

His uncles Donald and Scrooge weren’t long in getting there, too, and Webby quickly saw Donald eyes widen in worry at the sight of his nephew. And it was logical he felt that way, because he had only seen him falling to the ground and already unconscious. He didn’t know Huey was walking and talking before that. Tremblingly, Donald called to his nephew:

"Huey?"

The boy didn’t answer. Webby felt her panic grow, Huey didn't look good, in fact his appearance was horrible.

"My sensors are scanning his constants." Gizmoduck said suddenly surprising everyone, as if to confirm what the superhero had just said, his suit started making a series of noises until it was finally momentarily silent. Within seconds an artificial voice began listing the results of his scan:

_"State: unconscious_

_Body temperature: 39.5ºC (103.1ºF)_

_Malnutrition and severe dehydration_

_Heart rate: 150 bpm (beats per minute)_

_High blood pressure_

_Abrasions on both wrists_

_General condition: serious_

_Immediate medical attention is recommended or his condition could become critical.”_

Webby's eyes widened to their full capacity when she heard all of that, her breathing started to race. She could see Huey was sick, but she hadn't expected his condition to be close to critical. The young girl could feel tears in her eyes. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening! Webby shook her head and could hear Louie beside her whispering:

"No…"

Donald got up suddenly and without taking his eyes off his nephew, said to everyone:

"We’ve got to get him to the hospital right now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I thought Webby was the best choice to write this chapter. Another one would have been Beakley, but I’m more used to write Webby, while Beakley… I’ve never written from her POV. And about this chapter, I thought Beaks would have some kind of tech weapon, and the best option for him to have a weapon, was to hide it on his phone. What do you think about that? Beaks can be lazy, narcissistic and hateful, but he’s good with tech. For that reason I thought this could be something he could do. And after being defeated, he knew the one he had to fear the most was Donald… quite obvious, isn’t it?
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	27. How deep can injuries be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Here I bring you the new chapter!! This one is an emotional one, but it had a special deliver on it that I hope you’ll like.
> 
> Also, in this chapter there’s a piece of art related with a scene it appears. This piece of art was done by whisperwillyou on Tumblr if you want to check it. Anyways, I hope I’ll like the chapter 😉
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

They returned to Duckburg in record time. Launchpad had just finished repairing the plane when they staggered out of the building with an unconscious Huey in their arms. Mark Beaks and Falcon Graves were both securely tied back-to-back and put under Beakley's watchful eye. Seriously, that woman looked like a sergeant. Her gaze was so intense that not even Beaks dared to open his beak.

Fenton noted the state Graves was in. They told him it was Donald who left him in that state after he floated about torturing Huey. Seeing the hawk, a bird much larger than himself beaten so badly made the superhero wonder what would have happened to Beaks if Scrooge hadn't stopped his nephew. After all, the parrot was the one responsibility for all their heartache. He even threatened to kill Huey through a number of slow and painful ways if they didn't let him escape.

During the journey, Gizmoduck was asked to hold Huey, since his suit incorporated cooling functions that would help to lower the poor duckling body’s temperature. It could at least prevent his fever from rising further. Fenton could see how Donald didn’t look away from his nephew for a second, like he was afraid that he would disappear again forever. The Hispanic duck was heartbroken to see Donald like that, and hoped that his mother would never be in the same situation with him… too late for that. His mother had already been in Donald’s position not long too long ago when he was in the hospital.

"We are about to fly over the Duckburg Police Headquarters, we’ll be there in a matter of minutes."

"Oh really? That gives me an idea,” said Scrooge with a smile. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something.

Then approaching the back of the plane, he grabbed something and put it on both villains, it seemed… a parachute? He also put the written note so that it was clearly visible, but couldn’t fall. Next, he tied a rope around his waist and ordered the others to take a seat and buckle up. All except Donald, Scrooge convinced him to do the same he had done. He assured him that he would like what he was about to do.

The next thing the rich duck did was open the plane’s back door while holding his grand-nephew's kidnappers to keep them from flying away.

His last action was to call his nephew over and say:

“Donald? Would you like to do the honors?”

Donald Duck smiled and approached the villainous duo. Grabbing Beaks by the shirt collar, he said:

"This for what you’ve done to my nephew."

He then pulled the ring that opened the parachute and booted them from the plane with a hard kick. The uncles watched with satisfaction as Beaks screamed when he fell, before the parachute caught air and descended right in front of the station’s door. Several officers to immediately came out and grabbed them.

With a smile, Scrooge closed the door again and when he turned and saw the strange expressions, he explained:

“I didn't want them to come with us to the hospital, and I didn't want to stop to drop them off, so I applied the intermediate solution. And the note explains they’re detained on charges of kidnapping, torture and attempted murder and that for more details contact me.”

Fenton was amazed, but he didn't complain. That was the least those two deserved. Without further distractions, they then rushed the oldest triplet to the hospital. When they saw his condition, the doctors immediately took Huey to the intensive care unit to do a thorough examination of his condition and give him the care he needed.

The family was forced to wait outside. Obviously the doctors didn’t let anyone pass while they were taking care of the boy. The family had no choice but to wait anxiously for someone to give them some news regarding Huey.

As they waited, going from one side of the room to the other, Donald turned to the rest and said:

"I want to be by his side when Huey wakes up."

Scrooge shook his head and looking sadly at his nephew, said:

"Sorry lad, I don't think it's the most appropriate."

Before the sailor-clad duck could even open his mouth to reply, Dewey asked:

"Why not Uncle Scrooge? I think Uncle Donald has every right to be by Huey's side when he wakes up. Why shouldn't he be there?”

The other little duck dressed in green, seemed as obfuscated as his brother. It was as if they both wanted to jump on the older duck for saying something like that. If only they knew… Fenton was about to explain what the kids’ great-uncle had meant by those words, but Webby came before him saying:

"Boys, don't be mad at Uncle Scrooge. What he means is that probably the best thing is that none of us here will be by his side when he wakes up."

"What? Why?" the two brothers asked at the same time. Donald seemed to be wondering exactly the same thing.

Fenton sighed and it was he who responded this time explaining:

“While we were looking for Huey, we found a room full of costumes and masks of each one of the members of this family. All obviously worn, there was even a Gizmoduck suit, practically identical to mine. I think… I think they used all that to torture Huey. Making him believe that it was we who did it to him."

The eyes of those who were in the other rescue group widened at those words, and the reactions were not long in coming:

"What?"

"That's horrible!"

Mr. McDuck sighed and then said:

"We know. But not knowing what kind of torture the poor lad was subjected to, seeing any of us when he wakes up, could be… disastrous."

Donald looked at his uncle with a face full of fear and said:

"B-but then what do we do? The last thing I want is for my nephew to wake up among strangers.”

The older duck looked at his nephew with compassion and putting his hand on his shoulder, said:

"I know Donald, but I'm afraid there’s nothing more we can do."

"Or, maybe not..." Webby said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her, and then Beakley asked:

"What do you mean dear?"

The girl with a bow in her hair turned to look at her grandmother and answered:

"Among all the costumes that were there... there was me, you, Granny, Uncle Scrooge, Donald, Gizmoduck... but none of Fenton. And I think Gyro’s intern is a good friend of Huey’s.” 

Fenton opened his eyes in surprise, he hadn’t expected this young girl to know that. Although of course, she seemed to be really perceptive. It was logical to think she had realized something like that. Smiling with some emotion, he asked:

"Do you believe it?"

She turned to look at him and answered:

"I know Huey went to visit a friend at the hospital almost daily, and I think that friend was that duck."

Scrooge smiled then and said:

"That's right lass. I introduced them both myself."

"It's true…" Fenton said in a nostalgic voice. Then he realized everyone was looking at him, cleared his throat and quickly added:

"Er… I heard him comment to Dr. Gearloose."

Scrooge nodded and speaking to everyone present, but specifically to him, said:

"I think that lad could be very helpful to us. Gizmoduck, could you go to Gyro's lab and bring him please?"

Fenton smiled and quickly replied:

"On my way, Mr. McDuck. "

He then left the hospital and pretended to leave, waited a while, and re-entered the hospital in his civilian form, claiming he had been informed of the situation and was delighted to be able to assist in whatever was necessary.

* * *

The constant noise from the machines was all that could be heard in the room, Huey had been connected to several of them to keep his constants under control and make sure everything was going well. When the doctors managed to stabilize the duckling, they informed the family and moved him to a room. Fenton immediately went with him and stayed there while Scrooge and Donald talked to the doctor, who informed them the full extent of the physical damage, there was a significant probability the boy would also suffer psychological damage.

Apparently, this worried the doctor a lot, especially when he learned the details of what had probably been done to the boy. The doctor immediately suggested that Huey would need several tests when he woke up, something to which Mr. McDuck and his nephew completely agreed with. He also encouraged them, if the boy desired, to be one of the first people he saw when he woke up. That part especially pleased Donald, since the poor duck feared how long he would have to wait to see his nephew again.

Fenton sighed, the poor boy was lying down, but half incorporated (just as he was when he was hospitalized) probably to facilitate his breathing. He had several electrodes spread across his chest to monitor his heart rate, some more electrodes on his head to monitor his encephalogram. He also wore an oxygen mask over his beak, thus ensuring the boy received all the oxygen necessary to breathe. A band on his arm monitored his blood pressure intermittently. And an intravenous line had been placed in his other arm to supply him with the liquid, food, and medication the boy might need.

Huey had already been in those conditions for three days. During that time, as is logical, the police, his mother among them, contacted Mr. McDuck to ask him for details about everything that happened. The rich duck told them everything he knew. Informed them of the place where they had kept the boy captive, the state he was in when they rescued him… well, everything.

In those three days as well, Huey's fever had subsided, and although his temperature was still perhaps higher than it should be, it was no longer in those same high temperatures when they found him.

The Hispanic duck looked at the boy sadly. Since they moved the boy from the ICU, he hadn't separated from Huey for a second. He knew that his family was outside, waiting for Huey to wake up, from time to time one of them, especially the children, poked their heads to see if there had been any change. But so far there had been no such luck, no, the poor boy-

Huey's breathing hitched suddenly, and almost instantly the boy began to jerk. The heart rate machine indicating that his pulse had quickened. It seemed… as if he was having a nightmare, which had happened several times during those days. It took just a moment for Fenton to stand beside him, trying to calm him down. Placing a hand on his cheek, he did something his mom had done to him when she wanted to calm him down. He began gently rubbing his thumb in circles while saying:

"Huey, calm, calm, it's not real."

Little by little the duckling relaxed, which for Fenton was a relief. The Hispanic duck was about to relax when he suddenly saw the boy's eyelids begin to tremble. That caused Fenton to withdraw his hand in surprise, could it be…? Could it be Huey was waking up at last?

Slowly, very slowly, the boy's eyes began to open. He quickly closed them again, probably due to excess light. But they reopened again. Huey looked confused, as if he didn't know where he was, and it was logical. The only thing the boy had seen in the past weeks was the interior of that identical building to Waddle. Or, he had probably only seen the inside of that room which they had kept him locked up in. 

Suddenly, the boy's gaze went to him. The boy narrowed his eyes for a moment and then his eyes widened in surprise. Fenton couldn't say for sure, but he thought he saw a gleam of joy in his gaze. The boy tried to sit up a little more, which after a little effort he managed. All without taking his eyes off the adult duck.

"F-F-Fenton?" Asked the boy hoarsely. Probably as a mixture of the lack of use, the disease and the constant pumping of dry air in his airways.

The Hispanic duck rushed to his side and replied:

"Yes, yes Huey, it's me. I'm here. I'm with you."

Huey looked around. He seemed puzzled. Looking back at the Hispanic duck, he asked, or at least tried to ask:

"W-where…?"

Fenton assumed the boy wanted to know where he was, so he explained:

"You are in the Duckburg hospital. You had been unconscious for three days."

Huey widened his eyes. After swallowing, asked again:

"And where is… Mark?"

The brown plumage duck raised an eyebrow, he didn’t understand why the boy had called that parrot by his first name, but still, he replied explaining:

"He can't hurt you anymore, neither can Graves."

Again, Huey's eyes widened in surprise first, and then he lowered his head looking away when he asked with some disappointment in his voice:

"R-really?"

"Absolutely." Fenton replied. The truth, he was concerned that Huey seemed to regret he wouldn’t see Beaks again. It was as if the boy really wanted to see him. As if, as if… he… wanted to be… at his side… that must be because of brainwashing, surely.

Argggg, it was clear Huey would need some time to recover. But in order to do so, the first thing he needed was to see his family, so, looking at the boy again, he smiled softly and said:

"Listen Huey… your family is here."

Huey looked at him again, and this time, Fenton detected anxiety on his face. This wasn’t good. How deep was the damage done to the boy? The Hispanic duck saw Huey's beak shake before he managed to ask:

"My family?"

The machine beside him indicated that his heart rate had increased.

 _Oh, oh,_ that wasn’t a good sign, he had to calm him down! Putting both hands on his shoulders, the adult duck assured the older triplet:

"Easy, Huey, easy, it’s nobody in disguise. They’re your real family. They’ve missed you all this time, they are very worried about you and they’re also eager to see you. Do you want to see them?"

Fenton's words seemed to calm the altered duckling. The older triplet took several deep breaths and finally, in a voice… more or less normal, finally said:

"No, I mean… yes… I-I guess so. I-I really want to see them, it's just that…"

"Do you need a little time?" guessed the Hispanic duck. Huey looked down and slowly nodded, letting Fenton know he was right.

The older duck sighed and calmly said:

"Okay… I'll go warn them and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay…" Huey replied looking at him again. Then followed him with his eyes as Fenton headed for the door. When he got there, the Hispanic duck turned to look at him, and asked him:

"Shall I tell them to wait ten minutes?"

The brown plumage duck waited while the boy considered it for a moment until he finally replied:

"Yes… I think… I think it will be enough."

Fenton nodded and left the room, as expected, was soon approached by family members. He relayed to them what had happened. How Huey had woken up. His reactions to mentioning Beaks and mentioning them and how he had also agreed to be seen.

Since the boy had asked for a ten-minute wait, Scrooge considered they could take advantage of that time to notify the doctor that his nephew was conscious and explain what had happened. Everyone agreed with that. So, after finishing speaking, Fenton entered the room again while the others went to notify the doctor.

Once inside the Hispanic duck took a seat in the chair next to the bed, it didn't take long to see that Huey seemed to be nervous. Something demonstrable by the slightly accelerated pulse, his breathing a little panting and the appreciable tremor in his closed hands. Poor Huey… truth be told, the adult duck didn't know what to do or say to calm him down. He chose to tell him everything was going to be okay, but when he opened his beak to speak, Huey did it before:

"Fenton…"

"Tell me Huey." said the Hispanic duck almost immediately.

The older triplet looked him in the eye, there was uncertainty and fear in them. Then speaking tremblingly, he asked:

"Could you… could you take my hand when they come in, please?"

Fenton was surprised at that request. Why was he asking him something like that? Was he so scared to see his family again? Well, at least… that he agreed to see them was already a big step for him, so the brown plumage duck nodded and replied:

"Of course."

The older triplet breathed a sigh of relief, closing his eyes momentarily, when he opened them again, he looked at Fenton again with pleading eyes and said:

"Whatever happens, please don't let me go."

Fenton put his hand on the trembling duck's forearm and said:

"I promise I won't."

Huey smiled gratefully at Fenton's promise. But the smile quickly faded when knocks sounded on the door.

The boy knew it.

The time had come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay… I know this chapter was… wow, I really liked write it from Fenton’s POV, what do you think about it? Did you like it? Also, what do you think about Scrooge’s special deliver? I thought it’d be funny to put something like this. And Webby? She really is a very perceptive person, and her idea probably helped them all with Huey’s situation. Welp, as always, I’d like to hear what do you think about this chapter.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> And if I’ve forgot someone, I’m sorry
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉
> 
> https://whisperwillyou.tumblr.com/post/189357684971/commission-for-pilyarquitect-a-scene-from-their


	28. A tense reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Welp first of all... DUCKTALES RETURNS IN 2 DAYS WOO-HOO.
> 
> Okay, that said, here I bring you the new chapter!! I guess you all are glad Huey had finally wake up, but as you could see, he’s truly affected for what Beaks and Graves did to him. Someone said it was a cliffhanger to not put Huey’s reunion with his family in the previous chapter, and this is true, but there’s also a reason for this. I wanted to explain this reunion from another POV. That’s why I didn’t put it in the last chapter. I really hope you’ll like the person I’ve chose to write this chapter.
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Seeing his brother unconscious wasn’t something Louie had been prepared for. What had that parrot done to Huey? Why had he passed out? He had hoped for a clean rescue from some cell, never would have thought that this rescue mission would turn into a hostage situation.

But the worst part came when the Waddle CEO had threatened to kill Huey. And despite his pleas not to, the gray parrot seemed more than happy to follow through. Fortunately, thanks to Webby who acted at the right time, and also thanks to Gizmoduck, his brother was plucked from the feathers of his kidnapper.

He would’ve been completely happy with that result if it weren’t for the serious state in which Huey was. His life was in danger. This filled the green-dressed triplet with deep fear. The thought they might lose his brother made him feel terribly sick. This couldn't be happening!

His brother had been kidnapped, tortured, and now, it seemed… it seemed he could die! He had never seen death, especially not someone he loved, so closely. And of all people, Huey was one that least deserved this.

Despite knowing the return trip to Duckburg was unbelievably fast, it felt like forever. The idea that Huey might die on the trip terrified him. So great was the fear of the youngest triplet that he dared not take his eyes off his brother.

Already in the hospital, after having freed themselves from the extra burden, the anguish continued when they couldn’t even see their brother, because he might be afraid of them. Couldn't things be worse? Fortunately, there was a silver lining… apparently, there was someone, a friend of Huey's, who could be by his side when the duckling woke up. That news gave Louie a small amount of relief. At least Huey wouldn't be completely alone.

Knowing about this friend, Gizmoduck went to look for him, and after a while, the same Hispanic duck – who introduced himself as Fenton – entered who had come to see them at the mansion along with Gyro and his team to inform them of their findings a few days earlier. Almost as if he was waiting his cue, a doctor came out a few minutes later to inform them of his condition. 

"How… how is my nephew?" Uncle Donald asked as soon as he saw the brown-plumaged owl, he wore glasses and a white coat.

The bird in the white coat sighed and placatingly explained:

“We’ve done everything possible for him. His condition is stable right now. His heart rate has normalized, although his fever is still quite high, we are giving him intravenous antipyretics."

"Antipy-what?" Dewey asked, and Louie was glad that it had been his brother and not him who asked, so he didn't look ignorant.

"It's a fever-reducing medicine, little one." replied the owl, looking at him with a soft and warm smile.

"What else can you tell us, doctor?" Uncle Scrooge asked, getting a little closer to the healthcare professional. The doctor looked at him and replied in the same calm voice:

"The little one is still quite grave. His dehydration level and malnutrition were a little worrisome. But we are treating that aspect intravenously as well. His blood oxygen saturation was…somewhat below average, so we have put him on oxygen to restore his oxygen levels to normal again. Another issue that worries me, are the abrasions on his wrists, they seem to have been produced by prolonged contact with metal, in my opinion."

The eyes of everyone present widened at those words. Truth be told… Louie didn't even remember that. His hands closed into fists and he felt his body tremble with rage. How had Huey done that? What could prolonged contact with metal mean?

The duckling could feel tears starting to form in his eyes, but he didn’t want anyone to see him cry, so he closed his eyes trying to hide the cry he knew was coming. How much had Huey really suffered under the clutches of Beaks and Graves?

"R-really?" Uncle Scrooge asked suddenly in a breathy voice. The younger triplet opened his eyes again and saw that the doctor looked his uncle in the eye and nodded slowly. He replied:

"Indeed, do you know by any chance how that could have happened?"

Scrooge shook his head, then replied:

"No… but we know those responsible, currently under police custody, who will know soon.”

After this there were a few moments of silence, and Louie saw this as an opportunity for him to speak next:

"Doctor…"

The owl turned to look at him and asked:

"Yes?"

Louie could feel his nerves grow, and tremblingly asked:

"Will… will my brother be… fine?”

The doctor acquired a sad expression at first, which put the youngest triplet even more nervous, but soon, the owl's face softened, and gently, replied:

"It’s early to say little one, but I’ve the impression this duckling is strong. I think he’ll succeed."

That gave Louie some encouragement. But before he could speak, Dewey preceded him by asking:

"Really?"

The doctor smiled softly and replied:

"It’s very probable."

"Where's the boy now?" Mrs. Beakley asked. The doctor turned to her and replied:

“In a few moments they’ll transfer him to a room. I suppose it isn’t necessary to ask, but will any of you accompany him?”

"Yes, I will," Fenton replied, raising his hand. The owl looked at him and nodding said:

"Very well." he took a piece of paper out of his dressing gown pocket and handing it to the Hispanic duck, explaining:

"This is the room to which they’ll transfer him. You can go there right now if you want."

"Right away," Fenton said with a huge smile and without wasting time, he ran towards it. Louie really wanted to follow him, but he knew that even if his brother woke up, seeing him wasn't the best idea. Sharing a look with Dewey, the younger triplet knew his brother felt the same way as him.

Louie suddenly heard his great-uncle sigh and then said:

"Doctor… there is… there is another matter I would like to discuss…"

And so, between him and his uncle Donald, they told the doctor how Huey had been put into a state of total isolation, and most likely they had tried to manipulate his mind so he would fear his entire family. As he listened, the owl's eyes widened more and more, not believing what they were telling him. When they finished, the only thing the doctor could say was:

"I think… it’ll be necessary to do a thorough examination of that boy when he wakes up."

* * *

A day had passed since they rescued Huey. Unsurprisingly, the police contacted them to ask for more details about the reasons for arresting Graves and Beaks. His great-uncle told them everything. How they were both responsible for Huey's kidnapping… how they had tortured him for days… how when they went to rescue him, Beaks threatened to kill him in front of them. He explained everything, omitting obviously how they had obtained certain information.

As expected, the police went to search the place where Huey had been held captive in as soon as Uncle Scrooge gave them the location of of it. That same afternoon, Officer Gloria Cabrera showed up at the hospital – where they were all waiting for Huey to wake up – to inform them of what they had found. And after listening, Louie would have preferred not to have heard anything:

"We registered the place you indicated and there we found… well, it is… hard to say… we found… a small room without windows or lights."

"Just like the kids saw in their dream," said Donald, looking at him and Dewey. Officer Cabrera looked puzzled at Donald and asked:

"Dream?"

Uncle Scrooge suddenly spoke up saying:

"We’ll explain it to you later."

Gloria tilted her head still a bit confused, but seemed to let it go. She shrugged her shoulders and said:

"Okay… in that room there were… traces that someone was locked up in there for a long time, considering the marks' size, and that agrees with your version Mr. McDuck. We will just confirm this when we compare the DNA samples we collected with samples from your nephew.”

Scrooge nodded and said to the police officer:

"Do what ye’ve to do. Anything to gain the evidence we need to hold those responsible To punishment."

Gloria nodded and replied:

"I get it, Mr. McDuck, although I’ve to say there was something else too…"

"What? What else was there?” Uncle Donald asked this time instead of Uncle Scrooge. The policewoman looked at him and, moving uncomfortably, replied:

"There were some… chains hanging on the wall. Those chains had been… clearly used."

"Used-? W-what do you mean used?” Louie asked before any of the adults could do it. Gloria sighed, closing her eyes and then, speaking in a slightly shaky voice, explained:

"I know it's hard to hear, but… that boy... Huey, wasn’t only locked up there. He was also chained."

CHAINED? Did they have his brother chained? As if he were an animal? That… that was inhuman! How could they do something like that to him? It had been quite painful to hear everything they had done to torture him. But this, this completely exceeded all of the above.

"Is that all?" Dewey asked. Louie looked at his brother and saw how he was trembling. He knew that the news had affected him deeply, as it had him. Louie looked at his brother compassionately. He fully understood what the middle triplet was going through, and knew that he must offer him some comfort. For this reason, the green-dressed duckling put a hand on his older brother's shoulder, letting him know he shared his suffering. Dewey seemed to appreciate that gesture. He turned and looked at him with a grateful smile.

Both brothers then looked at the police officer when she replied:

"For now, yes, that's all. We’ve obtained a warrant to investigate all Beaks’ computer data. We’ll continue investigating."

Uncle Scrooge nodded and replied:

"Keep us informed, please."

The woman nodded and said she would. Then she left, leaving the family again waiting for Huey to wake up, and they waited, waited, waited…

* * *

Two days after the police officer's visit, as he and Dewey paced up and down the hall, they suddenly saw the room’s door open and Fenton came out. Not half a second later, the two youngest triplets were next to the adult duck asking about their brother. The Hispanic duck then gave them the long-awaited news.

"Huey is awake and has told me you can come see him… in about ten minutes."

Ten minutes? Why couldn't they get in right now? Louie didn't quite understand why his brother needed time, but he respected his request, whatever it was so he could see him again.

His uncle Scrooge decided to take advantage of that waiting time to notify the doctor the older triplet had woken up, and naturally also told him that Huey had agreed to see them. The doctor nodded at the news, but made it very clear to his uncle, to all of them actually, that if they saw any signs of disturbance in the duckling, they should try to leave the room as soon as possible.

Louie had a hard time accepting that, but he understood the doctor wanted to avoid a possible panic attack or a situation that was too stressful for Huey. So, even though it hurt his soul, he knew that if his brother felt excessively uncomfortable with them making him company, then they would have to go.

After the time Huey had asked for, everyone made their way to the room. Louie could feel his nerves grow. How was Huey going to react when he saw them? Would he do it just like in their dream? With fear and mistrust? Or would you be glad to see them? The younger triplet felt his heart pound at the uncertainty of what was going to happen.

They reached the door, and after inhaling, Scrooge knocked a few times. From inside, could be heard:

"Enter."

The older duck turned to look at the rest of the family and after a brief nod, everyone entered. Once inside, they saw Huey, sitting on the bed. The oxygen mask sitting beside him. The older triplet looked at them with wide eyes. Louie couldn't say for sure, but he seemed to see fear in his gaze, and it didn't go unnoticed that his older brother was sitting completely rigid, he seemed tense. Louie sighed; this was what he feared. Huey was afraid of them. With a more thorough look, Louie was glad that at least his older brother was no longer wearing the clothes Beaks had given him, and instead was wearing one of those hospital gowns. Honestly, the gown wasn’t very encouraging, but Louie preferred it more than to see his brother dressed as Beaks.

Putting his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt, the youngest triplet looked down and then he saw it, Huey was shaking hands with Fenton, and the poor boy was squeezing the Hispanic duck's hand hard, so hard that it even trembled. Now it was clear to him, Huey wasn’t scared of them, he was terrified! but he was making great efforts to hide it. That broke the green-dressed triplet's heart.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his great-uncle step forward and softly asked:

"How… how are you feeling lad?"

The sound of the machine that controlled Huey's heart rate indicated that his brother's heart had accelerated slightly. Due to nerves, probably, and that was demonstrated when the older triplet responded tremblingly:

"I-I'm-m-better Uncle Scrooge."

Louie could see Huey was gripping Fenton's hand even tighter than before, so tight that the younger triplet didn’t miss the grin of pain from the Hispanic duck.

What should he do? Should he say something? As the younger triplet pondered what to say, his uncle Donald spoke up then explaining:

"Huey… I can't even imagine what you've been through, but… I want you to know that… we've all missed you so much while you were being held captive."

The older triplet's eyes widened in surprise and with what seemed a touch of emotion in his voice, he asked:

"R-r-really?"

That filled Louie with hope, his brother seemed glad to know they had been worried about him. The young boy ventured to step forward, opened his beak to speak, but before he could, Dewey's excited voice sounded earlier, saying:

"Of course, yes, Huey! We were… lost without you.”

The cardiac monitor of the older triplet went insane, indicating Dewey scared his brother. Great, he was scared again.

_Great job Dewey._

Huey looked down and in a sorely the older triplet said:

"I… I'm sorry…"

 _Oh no!_ He couldn't allow Huey to feel guilty when he had done nothing! So, stepping forward, the younger triplet put his hands on the bed his brother was lying on and speaking softly, said:

"You don't have to be sorry Hue. You did nothing, this wasn’t your fault."

His older brother looked away, as if he didn't seem to want to believe what Louie had just said. The younger brother looked down as well. What more could he say? What else could he do? He was good with words, but now… he didn’t know what even say to cheer up his brother.

"Huey…" said uncle Donald suddenly.

Louie looked up at the same time as Huey. They both looked at their uncle and then, the older triplet asked:

"Yes, Uncle Donald?"

The duck dressed as a sailor, rubbed the nape of his neck and in an unsure voice, asked:

"Can I give you a hug?"

Again, Huey's heart rate quickened, but despite that, the boy replied:

"Y-y-yeah, I guess so,"

Donald smiled and walked over to his nephew. Louie frowned. How was it possible that no one saw before doing anything else that they had to make sure Huey was calm? That way they were just upsetting him more.

His uncle Donald stood next to his nephew and hugged him. Contrary to what everyone surely expected, Huey didn’t return the hug, he just sat there, completely rigid while his uncle gently wrapped his arms around him.

Louie freaked out; he could hear the heart rate monitor speeding up fast. Louie was about to say something, but Uncle Scrooge must have noticed too, since the rich duck spoke up saying:

"Well… I think this is more than enough for a first meeting… come on lads, let's get out of here, we don't want ye to feel uncomfortable, Huey. But I want you to know all of us who love ye will be here for what ye need, understood?”

Donald separated from his nephew and then the boy looked at his great-uncle and said:

"Y-y-yes Uncle Scrooge."

The older duck nodded, and then slowly they all left, leaving Fenton and Huey alone again. Louie also separated from the bed and headed for the door, but stopping just before leaving, the green-dressed triplet turned to face his brother again, and said:

"Huey… before I go… I want to ask you something…"

"What?" Huey asked with a touch of curiosity in his voice. Louie took a deep breath and then asked:

"Do you remember what Dewey said to you in that dream where I, Dewey and you got together and were talking?"

Huey's eyes widened in surprise, and speaking with some confusion, the boy in bed said:

"I thought… I thought it was just a dream…"

Louie smiled tenderly, even though he thought it was just a dream, his brother remembered it. That gave him the chance to say what he wanted to say. And he did so:

"It wasn't Hue, we really talked, and do you remember what Dewey told you?"

Huey said nothing, just stared at his brother, waiting for him to speak. Louie smiled even more than before and softly said to:

"He told you: _you have to be strong, do not let Beaks win, keep fighting and remember that we ... our whole family loves you._ "

Huey was silent, looking at his brother. To Louie's delight, the other duckling was quiet, calm, he seemed… glad to hear that. The green-dressed triplet cocked his head slightly, then added:

"What Dew said at that time I repeat now, brother. I know you are confused, but all the fear you feel towards us was instilled in you by Beaks and Graves. We would never hurt you."

Huey's eyes widened momentarily in surprise, but soon returned to normal. The older triplet, with a small smile and looking his brother in the eyes, said:

"T-thanks… Lou.”

Now it was Louie's turn to be surprised. For the first time… for the first time since Huey woke up, he finally saw his brother there. Louie smiled and felt the moisture build up in his eyes, he was going to cry, but he didn't care, because he knew they were tears of joy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, so yeah I wrote this from Louie’s POV since I believe he’s very sensitive – even if he tries really hard to hide it – and I thought that see all this from his inner thoughts would be interesting. Also I hope you liked the little detail where Louie was glad he wasn’t seen as an ignorant for not knowing what antipyretics were. I thought it could help to calm a little the tense situation they’re all going through but without take you out from the story. In my opinion – unless you’re doing a funny story – you’ve to control the humor you put in a story or movie or whatever, and also not make characters look like completely out of themselves. I hope I managed to do it in this story. Welp I think that’s all, as always, I’d like to hear what do you think about this chapter.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	29. Feelings collapsing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Here I bring you the new chapter!! I’m sorry this one comes a little late, but it’s finally here! Well, this chapter has some angst moments – as you’ll see – but, also, it has a wonderful surprise at the end that I hope it’ll like you all. Also, this chapter introduces properly my little OC. He doesn’t appear really much, but yeah! He’ll have his moments in this story.
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

_When he opened his eyes, everything around him was dark. Why was it so dark? Slowly, he picked himself up from the hard surface he was lying on._

_Wait-_

_Hard Surface? Hadn’t he been lying on a bed? What was going on? Fear for not knowing urged him to quickly stand up, and in doing so, he heard with horror the sound of metal against metal._

_No, no, no!_

_This couldn’t be happening! His eyes slowly grew accustomed to the darkness, and as he did… he recognized the place, the walls… the floor… the door… was… was he locked up again? H-how was it possible? If… if they had rescued him… they had taken him out of that horrible place!_

_In deep fear, he looked down at his wrists, and saw… saw the cuffs there. His body began to tremble with deep horror. Why was he there?_

_Huey closed his eyes and put her hands to her head. This made no sense!_

_"It's not real... this isn't real... it's a dream, it has to be!"_

_Snuggling into a ball, the boy began rocking back and forth trying to calm himself down… a totally useless move. But he at least had to try. At the same time as he said to himself:_

_"I’m dreaming… I’ll wake up in the hospital… with Fenton by my side,"_

_Huey could hear the clinking of the chains by the movement he was making. He couldn't bear it… it made him sick to hear the metal links colliding between them. They were a constant reminder that he couldn't get out… couldn't take off those chains and escape… he was… a prisoner…_

_The older triplet opened his eyes and looked toward the door when he heard the sound of a key being inserted into a lock. The duckling then felt his trembling worsen. Wh-who was going to appear on the other side?_

_The door opened, allowing light to enter the room. Huey had to cover his eyes at the sudden glow. His heart was pounding, who was there? Slowly pulling his hand away, the duckling looked up and caught his breath when he saw Graves, dressed as Gizmoduck, there at the door._

_No… no, please… the worst treatments Huey had received from Graves had been when he had been disguised as Gizmoduck. What was he going to do to him now?_

_Breathing wildly now, Huey looked at Graves with wide eyes as the hawk entered the room with a plate of food. The adult bird put the plate of food on the ground and straightening up said:_

_"Here's your food, come on, come get it,"_

_Huey squeezed his beak closed as he looked at the food. Graves knew very well that because of where he had left the plate, he was unable to reach it. The older triplet knew it, knew that Graves did this only to make fun of him._

_"Come on, aren't you hungry?"_

_The older triplet moved his hand to his stomach, the truth was it hurt because of the hunger he had, but no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible for him to reach the plate of food._

_"You don't seem to be hungry, eh boy? Then…"_

_Huey's eyes widened in horror. What did Graves mean by that? The duckling watched how the falcon bent down to pick up the plate and, straightening up again, he turned to leave. Huey got up immediately, moving forward as much as the chains allowed him and desperately shouted:_

_"No Please!"_

_Graves stopped and turned slightly to look over his shoulder, and the chained duckling could see a mocking smile on the beak of the adult bird. Huey ignored as much as he could the sick nausea feeling he felt, knowing that Graves was enjoying what he was doing and after swallowing hard, the duck said in a trembling voice:_

_"P-please… don't leave me without food,"_

_Graves turned completely, looking at him in the eye and said:_

_"And why should I give you something that you despised a few moments ago? Those who are ungrateful like you shouldn’t be given anything."_

_Huey closed his eyes and lowered his head. Speaking brokenly he said:_

_"I-I- didn't want to despise the food- I- was too far… I couldn't-"_

_Despite the closed eyes, he felt the moisture accumulating in them, Huey dipped, hating that Graves saw him cry. Suddenly, he heard Falcon laugh. Opening his eyes to look at him, he saw the hawk looking at him with a wide smile and then said:_

_"It seems the baby is going to cry. I think it would be better for me to take this until you learn to contain your tears."_

_Huey's eyes widened in horror and he immediately yelled:_

_"What? No!"_

_Almost instantly Graves's face changed from mocking to worried and his voice also changed to alarmed and sounded like Fenton when he said:_

_“Huey, come on, wake up! You're having a nightmare! Wake up, please!"_

* * *

Huey tiredly opened his eyes and the sight of the hospital room greeted him. Looking towards the window he saw it was night. Turning his head to his right, he saw Fenton, looking at him worriedly, behind him was the companion bed in which the adult duck had obviously been sleeping on up to that moment. Huey immediately felt bad, it made him feel bad to make others worry about him… he didn't want to be a bother, especially if he woke others up in the middle of the night because of his nightmares.

The older triplet looked away, felt something wet on his cheeks. Had he cried while having his nightmare? Probably. The duckling suddenly felt a hand resting on his shoulder, which made him turn his head again to look at Fenton. The brown-plumaged duck was still looking at him with concern, and then asked:

"You're okay?"

"I'm… sorry," Huey replied, looking away again. Although he didn't see it, he assumed Fenton had cocked his head, since it was something the Hispanic duck used to do before asking whatever he was about to ask:

"For what?"

The older triplet cringed, even more embarrassed than before, and replied:

"For… having awakened you"

The duckling in bed felt Fenton put his free hand on his cheek, probably in an attempt to get him to look at him. But Huey wasn’t going to, he had… interrupted his friend's sleep. He didn't have the courage to look at him. He heard Fenton sigh, and then the Hispanic duck said:

"Oh Huey, you don't have to apologize, I know you didn't do it on purpose… but if it makes you feel better, do you want to tell me what you saw in your dream? Talking to someone can be good for you. "

The older triplet closed his eyes and his beak trembled. He knew Fenton was trying to help him, in fact, the Hispanic duck had been by his side day after day, ever since he woke up and then since he was rescued, trying to help him in everything he needed.

Furthermore, Fenton didn’t leave him alone for a moment, as the doctor had suggested. Yes, the duckling still remembered the day he woke up and his family saw him, a few minutes after they left, an owl in a white coat came in and introduced himself as Dr. Owlfang.

* * *

_Flashback_

_An owl entered the room after announcing his arrival. The doctor was very kind to him and very gentle. He told him that he had apparently been the victim of a brainwashing process, and that therefore they needed to determine how deep the damage he had suffered was. Huey's eyes had widened upon hearing that. His brothers had said the same thing to him in that dream, that meant… Dewey and Louie had told him the truth… Beaks had been playing with his mind. That made him… doubt for the first time the CEO showed affection towards him. Had he really ever cared about him or was it all a sham?_

_Dr. Owlfang then started asking several questions:_

_"Huey, I ask you to answer me honestly, how did you feel when you saw your family?"_

_The duckling's eyes widened in surprise, why was he asking him something like that? With some trepidation, the older triplet asked:_

_"How did I feel?"_

_The owl nodded warmly and softly said:_

_"Exactly. What emotions came over you when you saw them after so long?"_

_Huey shifted uncomfortably. Honestly, he didn’t want to say something like that to anyone, least of all to people he knew, because he felt very ashamed of some of the emotions he had felt._

_"I…" started the boy uncertainly. He closed his hands into fists, grasping the sheets that covered his body in the process. The heart monitor began to accelerate again._

_The healthcare professional sighed closing his eyes, then opened them and calmly said:_

_"Calm down little one. I'm not going to judge you for anything. But you telling me what you felt will be the first step to know what will be the best way to help you.”_

_Huey looked at Dr. Owlfang sadly and then at Fenton. He felt troubled about having to explain something like that. But he knew it would be even more difficult if the Hispanic duck was there with him. The doctor must have realized what was happening, because suddenly he turned to Fenton and said:_

_"Could you leave us alone for a few moments?"_

_The brown plumage duck seemed surprised for a few moments and finally replied:_

_“What? Oh yes, of course, of course,"_

_Fenton laughed nervously and left the room, leaving Huey and the doctor alone. Once they were sure that there was nobody else, the doctor looked at his little patient again and kindly asked him:_

_"And well?"_

_Huey sighed… he was very nervous. He really didn't want to talk about it, in fact… he wished he could forget all the time he was in that building… as if that had never happened. The boy finally looked at the doctor and weakly replied:_

_"I felt… confused, seeing… my family again… I felt a mixture of very contradictory emotions towards them… I… I couldn’t say which one was the strongest…"_

_"And would you have liked to know which one was the strongest?" the doctor asked a little curious._

_Huey shook his head and replied:_

_"No… I… was afraid that the feelings of hatred, mistrust, resentment, fear… towards my family were the strongest."_

_"You’re an extraordinary boy," said the doctor suddenly. Huey instantly looked up puzzled. The doctor looked at him with a wide smile, and seeing the confusion on his face, he explained:_

_"Despite what they did to you, pretending it was your loved ones who did it, you love them so much that you feared hating them. You’re very good Huey."_

_The older triplet blinked a few times and then with a shy smile replied:_

_"T-thank you doctor,"_

_"You're welcome. Huey… listen… you don't have to if you don't want, but would you like to tell me everything that happened to you there?”_

_Huey's eyes widened in fear, the machine that controlled his heart rate sped up again, and his breathing came in quick gasps. Trying to control himself again, the boy in bed, with a trembling voice, replied:_

_"No… I don't feel ready to… face it… not yet…"_

_Despite having a needle in his arm, Huey pulled his legs up to his chest and tried to put his arms around them, a somewhat difficult task with one that had to constantly introduce liquid into his system._

_The doctor quickly became aware of what was happening and rushing to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, he tried to calm him down, saying:_

_"Okay, take it easy, I don't want you feeling pressured to tell me. I'll just… be here by the time you're ready, okay?"_

_The doctor's words managed to calm Huey, who, after taking several breaths, dared to look at him and replied:_

_"Y-yes doctor."_

_End of Flashback_

* * *

Since the doctor's visit, the health specialist had suggested it’d be better for Huey to not stay alone for an instant. He also advised his family to visit him, so that he would recognize the differences between his real loved ones and the 'imitations' of those who intended brainwash him.

Of course, he suggested that the visits be one or two at a time, to avoid… situations or environments of strong tension such as the first visit with the whole family just after waking up. Since then, and to Huey's gratitude, each time they visited him, there were never more than two each time. Fenton was always by his side on each of those visits. Honestly… despite being glad they visited him, because yes, he was glad, he also was… afraid of being alone with them, that's why he always asked the Hispanic duck to stay with him.

There were also other people who visited him, and with whom he wasn’t afraid of being alone, such as Gyro, Manny, Lil-bulb, Quackfaster, Launchpad… even Lena visited him. To tell the truth, Huey didn’t consider himself very close to the teen with dyed hair, but he couldn’t deny he appreciated the fact she decided to visit him. When Huey got visits from those who weren’t of the mansion’s inhabitants, Fenton could use those moments to take a breath. Something he totally deserved after expending hours with him.

Speaking of the brown plumage duck, Fenton was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. He had almost forgotten that he had asked what his nightmare was about. The boy opened his eyes and looking at Fenton, finally replying:

"I prefer… not to talk about that dream."

That was true, he didn’t want to talk about it with anyone, since… sadly what he saw in that dream was something similar to what Graves always did to torture him. Also… he didn't want to discuss this particular dream with Fenton, since it involved… Gizmoduck. Huey didn't want to hurt Fenton by telling him that he was terrified of Fenton’s superhero alter ego. Huey didn't want to even…. think about it. He wanted to erase it from his mind forever.

"Are you sure about that Huey?" asked the brown plumaged duck worriedly.

"Yes, I am," Huey replied, closing his eyes. He could feel his body tremble slightly, and he knew Fenton had noticed it too. He understood the Hispanic duck was worried about him, but… he just didn't… want to talk about it.

The adult duck sighed and finally said:

"Okay Huey, but if you change your mind, and want to talk about it, I'm here to listen, okay?"

Huey looked at Fenton and nodded. After this brief exchange, both ducks lay down again to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Huey was sitting on the bed, peacefully reading a book that Gyro had brought him. Huey was deeply grateful for the gesture, because he really didn’t have many distractions in the hospital. In fact, he was afraid to test the boundaries of what he could and couldn’t do.

The reason for that fear, was because the duckling still remembered what happened the first time he ventured out of the room to walk down the hall, (accompanied by Fenton naturally). Considering that he was already sufficiently recovered, the doctors had decided to remove the intravenous and feed him only with solid foods. They had also told him that to regain strength he could go for a walk down the hall, something that greatly pleased the older triplet. But when he stepped out into the hall, a few seconds later, he was surrounded by a crowd of journalists trying to get a statement from Huey since, apparently, the news of Beaks' arrest and his involvement in the kidnapping of one of the McDuck's nephews had already reached the media, and journalists, like scavenging vultures, were scrambling to get the news exclusive.

The older triplet remembered being paralyzed, staring at the cameras that fired their flashes into his wide eyes. The boy was overwhelmed by such screaming right in front of him, and if it wasn’t for Fenton and the hospital staff, he probably would have had a panic attack right there. The duckling was promptly removed and gently escorted back to his room.

From that moment, all types of media was prohibited from entering the hospital. Even so, Huey no longer dared to leave his room again, choosing to pace from wall to wall instead of going by the corridors of the health center.

While the duckling read, there was a sudden knock on the door. Huey looked up from the book, just as Fenton also looked up from whatever he was reading.

"Come in," Fenton said. Both knew they couldn’t be journalists, because, as Uncle Scrooge requested, no one but family, close friends or hospital staff could enter that room.

The door opened and Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald appeared behind it. Both had smiles on their beaks. They gently entered the room keeping some distance from Huey to avoid the boy becoming nervous. To be honest… there was something strange about his uncles, the duckling noticed, they seemed happy, jubilant… how could that be?

"Hi Huey, how are ye today, lad?"

Huey still felt nervous with anyone in his family being around, but he was learning to live with that feeling, and it was becoming bearable… kinda. In fact, even if it was little by little, the more he interacted with his loved ones, the more he saw in the details that showed him they genuinely cared about him, and that they were very different from the distorted versions he saw in his dreams. Clearing his throat, the boy looked at his great-uncle and replied:

"I'm fine Uncle Scrooge, has something happened?"

The two uncles looked at each other with smiles on their beaks and then Donald spoke next:

"What happened is that we’ve brought you a gift."

"A gift?" the duckling asked surprised.

The older duck smiled widely and replied explaining:

"Yes, or rather, something we think you should get back."

"What is it?" Huey asked again, the truth, he was intrigued and… he was afraid to know what his uncles were referring to.

His Uncle Donald walked up to his side, and taking something from his back, showed it to the boy at the same time that he said:

"This."

Huey looked at what his uncle held out to him and his eyes widened in surprise when he recognized it.

"This it's my…"

 _My guidebook!_ He thought, taking the book in his hands.

"Exactly," said his sailor-dressed uncle, smiling even more than before.

Huey beamed and looking at his uncle. He said:

"Thank you so much Uncle Donald!"

The sailor-dressed duck had spread his arms, probably expecting a hug from his nephew. But Huey still didn't feel secure enough to hug anyone in his family. He felt sorry for Uncle Donald, but he just couldn't yet.

Uncle Scrooge then spoke, distracting him from his inner thoughts:

"But that's not all, lad."

"No?" Huey asked then looking at the duck in a top hat.

Scrooge shook his head and replied:

"No, how could we bring ye your Junior Woodchuck Guidebook without bringing ye something to help ye keep it where ye always do?"

And after this, he also took something from his back and handed it to the duckling in bed.

"M-my cap!" Huey exclaimed when he recognized what it was. Scrooge nodded and said:

"That's right lad… we saw- I mean, when we found ye, ye weren't wearing it, so we thought about bringing ye one of the spare ones in your room. Dewey and Louie gave it to us and we brought it to you."

Huey smiled. It was unexpected, but he loved it. He knew it was silly, but since Graves had burned his hat, Huey had found it much more difficult to resist the falcon’s visits, and now… his uncles had brought him one of his spare caps, as if, from somehow, they knew he missed it.

And in addition to the cap, they had also brought his guidebook. Oh, how much he had missed it. He knew it would have been very difficult, if not impossible to read while in absolute darkness, but even having it in his hands would’ve given him some reassurance… until Graves had burned it with his cap…

Why was he thinking about it now?

Huey shook his head and looking at his uncles said exultantly:

"Thank you very, very much!"

Both uncles smiled but didn't move, knowing they had to respect the boy's space. Huey felt a little bad about that. He knew they both wanted to hug him, and, being fair, they had brought him the best things they could bring him. It would be fair to show his gratitude with more than words. So, despite his growing nerves, the duckling got out of bed and hugged his uncles. They were both surprised at first, but soon returned the hug.

Huey smiled, having been the one who chose to hug his uncles, he didn’t feel as distressed as when his Uncle Donald hugged him a few days before.

Huey felt that perhaps, very slowly, things were beginning to improve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, I felt really bad when Huey didn’t hugged Donald back when he hugged him. That’s why I wanted to have him hugging Donald. I hope you’ll like it! Poor Huey, he’s having nightmares (even if it isn’t strange for him to have them). About that, what do you think about my little OC Dr. Owlfang? Do you like it? And the last thing, what do you think about the presents that Donald and Scrooge brought to Huey?
> 
> on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231 and Michael_Demos for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	30. More revelations arrive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> PLEASE, READ THIS FIRST. I just want to say this chapter may can be confusing if you think it starts just after the previous one. Actually, this chapter begins after all the family saw Huey just after the duckling woke up. I wanted to clarify this so it wouldn’t be confusing. That said, you can go ahead with the chapter 😊
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

The next morning after Huey woke up, the family was at the mansion. Donald was dejected. When he hugged his nephew, he had hoped it would help Huey. But it seemed to have the opposite effect. The duck dressed as a sailor felt from the very moment, he had surrounded the little boy in his arms, Huey became completely rigid. He could also hear how his heart began to pound. That… broke Donald’s heart. All he wanted was to help his nephew, but… he had been wrong in his method.

It had been almost afternoon when the doorbell rang. That surprised them. Soon everyone gathered at the entrance to see who had arrived, and when they opened the door, they discovered it was the officer Cabrera, who was asking to speak to them. Apparently she had gone to the hospital, and there she was said they had returned home. That was why she had come here. The policewoman's face showed… a certain degree of concern, which wasn’t very encouraging to Donald. What had happened to her?

"Mr. McDuck,” said the police officer looking at the old duck.

For his part, Uncle Scrooge seemed surprised by the sudden visit and with a certain apprehension in his voice, asked:

"Yes, officer Cabrera? Is something wrong?"

The woman sighed closing her eyes and then replied:

"Actually yes, I've… brought something… that I think you should see."

"What… what is it about?" Donald asked anxiously. Any matter related to the kidnapping or torture Huey might have suffered, Donald was afraid to hear it.

The police officer sighed again and responded by saying:

"It's difficult to explain. Can I come in?"

"Yes, yes, of course, enter lass," replied his Uncle Scrooge, allowing the woman to enter the mansion. Once inside, it was Beakley who spoke then asking:

"And well? What do you want to show us? "

The woman stirred uncomfortably, looking first at the adults and then at the little ones and said:

"I… I don’t know if it's good for children to see this,"

"Of course, yes!" Dewey said abruptly before any of the adults could say anything. The policewoman opened her eyes in surprise and completely shocked, asked:

"What?"

Louie and Webby ran to Dewey's side and between the three of them said:

"If we want to help Huey, we also have to know everything that happened!"

"You can't hide anything from us!"

"We deserve to know the truth!"

"We want Huey to heal as soon as possible, so we need to know everything."

Donald said nothing, it was true they had hidden too much information from these children, and it was also true they deserved to know the truth too… but he was afraid of how it could affect them. Apparently, the police officer seemed to think the same way, because then, she said:

"Okay… but I'd rather you didn't see this-"

"We don't plan to stay apart!" Dewey jumped suddenly, interrupting the woman. She seemed to finally convince herself it was impossible to change the kids’ mind and she agreed, saying:

"Okay, okay. Do you have a computer?”

"Of course," Scrooge replied.

Instead of the computer, they decided to connect it to the TV in the living room so that everyone could watch it comfortably. After connecting, Gloria showed them what Gyro and his team had already shown them, something that deeply shocked the children since they, despite having some knowledge of what was there, hadn’t actually seen it. For her part, the police officer seemed a bit surprised that the adults already knew about this, but it didn't take long to connect the dots. After all, she had installed the device that allowed them to obtain that information in the first place. But there was something else, something she had to show them, something that hadn't been, among Beaks’ data, something they found in the room Falcon had occupied in the building where they kept Huey locked up. What Officer Cabrera showed them were… heartbreaking videos.

* * *

_All what could be seen was that it was dark, although movement could be seen in the background, as if there was someone there, against the wall. Suddenly the door burst open, bringing light into the room. There, sitting hugging his knees, dressed in the same way as when they found found him (except he still had his cap), was Huey. The poor duckling, with obvious signs of having been crying, looked at whoever had just entered and his face suddenly took on an expression of sheer horror and his breath hitched._

_Huey was on his feet almost immediately, the palms of his hands pressing against the wall behind him. Suddenly the intruding figure appeared in the vision field, revealing who appeared to be Gizmoduck._

* * *

At this point, the viewers made a collective amazement breath, they knew it couldn't be the real superhero, it had to be Graves in disguise, but the resemblance was truly uncanny.

* * *

_Graves moved closer to the duckling and all Huey could do was press his back against the wall. He couldn't escape. There was no way out. He was cornered. The red-clad duckling began to tremble slightly, but he didn't take his eyes off the disguised falcon._

_For its part, the brown-plumaged bird approached until he was in front of the boy and once there, he extended his hand. Huey closed his eyes in fear, but all Graves did was take off his cap._

* * *

"Why did he take off his cap?" Dewey asked then.

Louie looked at him and with a slightly angry expression, replied:

"How do you expect us to know Dew? Just look and be quiet please.”

* * *

_"Hey! Give it back!” Huey yelled angrily, stepping forward, he tried to seem brave. The falcon replied in a hard, dry voice:_

_"No."_

_Huey immediately backed away; eyes wide. His back touched the wall again. The boy dressed in red stuttered:_

_"W-why n-not?"_

_Graves leaned slightly towards the frightened boy and deeply replied:_

_"I'm going to teach you a lesson."_

_Shivering even more than before, Huey’s breathing speed up, so before speaking, it was clear he tried to control his inhales and exhaled. When he managed to re-establish himself enough, the older triplet asked:_

_"What… kind of lesson?”_

_Graves straightened up again and simply replied:_

_"One that will teach you respect.”_

_And then, raising his free hand, he revealed a lighter in it, which he proceeded to light. A yellow flame shone bright in the dark space._

* * *

Webby gave a little strangled squeak and in a slightly anguished voice asked:

"Wait, don't you think he's going to…?"

"Burn Huey's cap, yes, that's what I'm afraid of las," replied Uncle Scrooge. Donald glanced at him and saw the older duck was staring at the screen with a stiff expression, obviously getting infuriated by what Graves had done to his beloved great-nephew. Donald felt the same way as the rich duck. The younger adult sighed and looked at the screen again:

* * *

_"No! Wait! What are you going to do?" the boy yelled in obvious panic. He had guessed what the falcon was going to do and tried to avoid it._

_Graves replied:_

_"I told you brat, Teach you a lesson."_

_Seeing that the hawk was bringing the flame closer to his beloved garment, Huey jumped up and grabbed Graves's arm with which held the cap. At the same time as he did that, he exclaimed:_

_"How can burning my hat be a lesson? Please don't do this… don't take it from me!”_

_Graves regarded the boy as if he was a pesky fly on his arm. Then, with a jolt, he literally knocked Huey off him, knocking him to the ground. The boy stood up quickly, only to witness Graves set the cap on fire and drop it to the ground. Seeing this, the duckling immediately tried to run towards his burning garment while screaming:_

_"NO!"_

* * *

A sudden gasp of astonishment, mixed with horror spread among all who were looking at the screen. How had that bird been able to do something so monstrous?

* * *

_Huey tried to reach up to his cap and put out the flames, but he didn't go very far because Graves lifted him off the ground and imprisoned his small body to the abdomen of the false Gizmoduck armor. The boy was literally caught in an iron hug, but that didn't stop him from fighting to try to break free while saying:_

_"Hey, no, release me! Let me go! I have to put out the fire! I have to-"_

_But the disguised hawk cut him off, saying:_

_"No, what you have to do is watch that hat be consumed until there is nothing left."_

_Huey stopped fighting and looked up to see Falcon's face. The boy’s face reflected horror and unbelieving, surely wondering why they were doing something like that to him. The boy turned his gaze back to his burning hat._

_Slowly these flames were getting smaller and smaller, until finally there was nothing but ashes. As soon as it finished, Graves released him, and Huey fell to his hands and knees, head down, his body trembling. It couldn’t be seen, but it was clear the boy was crying, a bitter cry mixed with hiccups._

_Huey looked up again. There in the middle was a pile of ashes with what used to be his cap. The boy stared at that little mountain while Graves disappeared from the screen._

* * *

"How was Graves able to do something like that to Huey?" Louie asked in a shaking voice, it was clear that what he had seen had affected him, and although Donald hadn’t said anything, he was also deeply horrified by what he had seen. How could that falcon have been so cruel with his nephew?

Dewey looked at his brother and then said angrily:

"And above all, how could they have been so sick as to record it?"

Donald was about to get up and leave when he heard a sigh from beside him. Officer Cabrera said:

"Guys… the video is not over yet,"

 _Not yet?_ What else could there be? Looking back at the screen, Donald saw his nephew was still crying as he looked at his ruined cap.

* * *

_Suddenly there was a clink that caused Huey to look up, and his eyes went wide. A few seconds later, Graves appeared on the screen again carrying… chains in his hands._

_"W-what's that for?" Huey asked in a shaky voice. Graves just kept advancing towards the boy as he replied:_

_"You'll see it right away,"_

_The hawk grabbed Huey when the duckling tried to get up and escape, the bird disguised as Gizmoduck dragged Huey to the back of the room, where he pushed the boy against the wall, causing Huey to hit the back of his head with it, an action that stunned him and subsequently made him fall to the ground. Without giving him time to react, Graves took the chains and attached them to the boy's wrists with rings._

_"No Please! Why do this? There's no need to… being locked in here is enough, I can't escape,” Huey pleaded as he struggled weakly to remove the chains._

_The hawk looked at him and replied:_

_"There may be no need, but this will make it more fun."_

_Huey's eyes widened in horror again and tremblingly asked:_

_"F-fun?"_

_"For me, yes," replied the hawk in a jovial voice, and then proceeded to nail the chains to the wall behind the boy. This done, he got up and started to leave the room._

_Huey immediately got up and ran forward, reaching as far as the chains allowed, which didn’t even allow him to reach what had been his cap a few minutes ago, and pleaded:_

_"Please don't do this! Don't leave me in chains!”_

_Graves turned to him and said to the distressed duckling:_

_"Oh, I'm going to do it, it's the least you deserve."_

_And having said that, the hawk left the room, while the door was closed and the room was once again going dark, Huey fell to his knees and the only thing that could be heard when everything was dark, were the cries of the trapped and now chained child._

* * *

This was the last thing in the video. And when it was over, Donald wished the children hadn't seen it. Even he didn't know if he could recover from what they had just seen. That… had been extremely ruthless. And while they now understood why Huey wasn't wearing his cap when they found him, it was also true the way it was taken from him was extremely cruel, and that right after that he was chained only made the traumatizing situation worse. Huey had suffered hell, that was a clear example of it, but on the other hand… that gave Donald an idea. Something they could do to cheer up his nephew.

Officer Cabrera then informed them that in addition to that video, there were others of a similar style, and that, in all of them, that hawk always appeared in disguise, treating Huey badly in some way or another. He also commented from what they had seen, the worst treatments Huey received always happened when the hawk disguised himself as Gizmoduck.

"It seems made on purpose for the boy to fear Gizmoduck.” 

Scrooge then sighed and replied:

"I’m afraid that it is precisely made with that intention,"

"What?" they all asked in a surprised voice. The old duck sighed and replied:

“I mean we all know how much Huey admires that superhero, I'm sure Beaks knew it too. It's very likely that he held a grudge towards him too, so making the lad fear Gizmoduck would be a way to…"

"Get revenge on him," Donald said when he understood what his uncle was trying to say.

Scrooge looked at him and, nodding, replied:

"Exactly."

This new possibility, even if it was just a hypothesis for the moment, didn’t leave the police officer indifferent. She rose quickly and announced:

"This matter needs to be investigated further, I’ll personally and immediately interrogate the suspects and if that is true, it would be best to notify Gizmoduck as soon as possible,"

Uncle Scrooge nodded and responded to the woman by saying:

"I couldn’t agree more, official Cabrera, do what ye’ve got to do and please continue to keep us informed."

"I will." she concluded, and after these words the woman left the mansion.

The other inhabitants tried to continue with their normal life, although it was difficult after having seen what they had seen.

* * *

In the early afternoon, they suddenly received a phone call from Fenton, it wasn’t needed to say that everyone immediately gathered around the set to find out what had happened and why the Hispanic duck was calling. Fenton began to explain:

“After bringing Huey's food, the doctor judged he seemed recovered enough to start walking. He even said he no longer needed the IV. Huey was very happy with this and to know he could leave the room and walk through the corridors. But… when we have both left, a lot of journalists have come out of nowhere and have surrounded Huey as if they were a herd of wolves and he his prey. Barely left him space."

When they learned what happened, they all looked at each other with concern, and then his uncle asked:

"And what did you do?"

They heard a sigh and then the duck explained:

"The logical thing of course. Between the hospital staff and I, we took Huey out of there and brought him back to the room, preventing anyone from entering."

Donald sighed in relief, at least they had reacted quickly, getting his boy out of 'danger'.

"And how is Huey?" Louie then asked in an obviously worried voice. Donald was anguished seeing how concerned his other two nephews were for their older brother. A few seconds of silence passed and then Fenton spoke again saying:

"Right now, he’s sleeping. I think the meeting with the press has been an exhausting event for him, so we have told him to rest."

Uncle Scrooge nodded with a slight smile, then said:

"Excellent lad, I'll take care of the rest."

* * *

And truly his uncle took care of it, as soon as Uncle Scrooge hung up, the rich duck called the hospital to ask them to put surveillance on Huey's room, and to forbid the passage of anyone who wasn’t authorized.

The next thing they did was organize a visiting schedule so that everyone would come to see him and there were never more than two people per visit. In addition to including family members, they had also added other people, Huey’s friends with whom they hoped the boy wouldn't feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, they hoped it would give Fenton some moments for him to rest and relax a little, since they knew that constantly accompanying someone sick or injured was extremely exhausting.

This strategy seemed to work on the days following the incident. And having other people visit, Huey gave Fenton a chance to rest, something the Hispanic Duck had deservedly earned.

Donald hadn't visited his nephew since the boy had woken up, and he knew his Uncle Scrooge hadn't been, either. For that reason, he decided they could both go see him together, as a way to show Huey that both of his uncles wanted his speedy recovery. Also, Donald didn't want to show up there empty-handed, no, he wanted to bring something to Huey, and he knew very well what that something was. Although… before going there, he wanted to warn his Uncle Scrooge of his plans so that he wouldn’t be caught off guard once they were in the hospital.

With this idea in mind, the duck dressed as a sailor went to his uncle's office, and after knocking on the door he entered to speak with him. Once inside he asked:

"Uncle Scrooge?"

"Yes, lad? What do you want?" the older duck asked in turn.

Donald took a deep breath and replied:

"I… I thought we could go see Huey tomorrow morning, if that's okay with you."

"Of course, it is, I’m looking forward to seeing him," his uncle replied with a nod. Donald smiled, then added:

"Yeah, me too… besides…"

"What's wrong Donald?" Uncle Scrooge asked, apparently a little intrigued:

"I… well, I had thought of bringing this to him."

After those words, he pulled out the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook they found in the park the day Huey was kidnapped. The rich duck looked down at what Donald was showing him. Suddenly, to the complete surprise of the sailor-clad duck, Scrooge began to laugh. This angered Donald, who, squinting, then said to his uncle angrily:

"Do you find it funny? I do it because I sincerely believe it can help him,"

Scrooge raised a hand to silence his nephew, and then, trying to stop laughing, said to his nephew:

"Calm down lad, it's not what you think. It just so happens that I had thought of something similar,"

And with that said, he opened a drawer in his desk and took out a red object from it, an object that Donald instantly recognized:

"Huey's cap!"

"One of the ones he has a spare," Uncle Scrooge clarified, then added:

“I asked Dewey and Louie to bring me one to take it to Huey. After seeing how Graves burned his, I think it's the least we can do for him "

Donald smiled, he had rushed to judge his uncle, now he realized that he had had the same idea, only with a different object. This lifted his spirits, and much more animated, he then said:

"Well, we’ll bring him both."

Scrooge nodded and replied:

"It seems very good to me, tomorrow we’ll take it to him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, with this chapter I tried to explain why Donald and Scrooge decided to bring this presents to Huey. Also, if any of you remember it, Beaks asked Beaks to record the moment where he'd burn Huey's cap, and obviously, if the police managed to get all Beaks data, they for sure found out those recordings. I know this had to be heartbreaking, but in order to help Huey, they need to know what the duckling went through. Welp, what do you think about it? Did you liked it? Leave me your thoughts.
> 
> Okay, with this chapter I tried to explain why Donald and Scrooge decided to bring this presents to Huey. Also, if any of you remember it, Beaks asked Beaks to record the moment where he'd burn Huey's cap, and obviously, if the police managed to get all Beaks data, they for sure found out those recordings. I know this had to be heartbreaking, but in order to help Huey, they need to know what the duckling went through. Welp, what do you think about it? Did you liked it? Leave me your thoughts.Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and guiltyaschanged for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	31. Reaching a diagnosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Well, I know the previous chapter was hard for the Duckfam, but I really thought it was necessary for them to know all what Huey had been trough, all what Graves told him, all that he suffered… in order to help him in the best way possible to heal.
> 
> For this next chapter, this one starts where the last Huey’s chapter finished, it is, Huey hugging his uncles. Also, in this chapter I’ve put an unexpected encounter. I hope you all will like how this encounter goes 😊 (I’ve to admit this was an idea that suddenly came to my mind and I just had to write it. I hope you’ll like it!
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Scrooge was amazed, to say it lightly. Considering how everyone had seen Huey's reaction when Donald hugged him a few days ago, the fact that now it was the lad who had voluntarily run into their arms was for Scrooge something… unexpected, but deeply wonderful. 

A grateful smile appeared on the old miser's beak. After almost a month since his great-nephew was kidnapped, he was finally able to have some physical contact with him. That was more than he had expected from that visit.

While they were still in the middle of that embrace, someone suddenly knocked on the door, interrupting their brief moment of mutual comfort. Huey was the first to break the embrace, staring at the door with apprehension. Scrooge wasn’t surprised that his nephew was afraid of who would be on the other side of the door. As they saw in the video, a door was the only thing that separated him from his freedom, but, every time the door was opened was for someone to appear who would hurt him. It was logical to think the boy distrusted who might be on the other side.

To be honest, when they entered the room shortly after the boy woke up, his facial expression also showed features like the current one he was wearing.

Yes, surely his nephew would never look at closed doors the same way again.

While Scrooge was distracted analyzing Huey's behavior, Fenton had responded to the knocks. The door opened to reveal Dr. Owlfang behind it, Scrooge instantly noticed that Huey was relieved when he saw the doctor. That made the older duck happy, the boy trusted the owl, that was good.

The doctor, seeing the two adult ducks and Huey standing next to him, was slightly surprised and quickly rushed to say:

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Scrooge looked at Donald, who with an understanding look told him to be the one to answer. So, the older duck raised his arms and said:

"No, no, ye didn't interrupt anything doctor, don't worry."

Then the duck in the top hat cleared his throat and added:

"Did ye want to tell us something?"

The doctor – who seemed to have been momentarily distracted – focused his attention on the rich Duck and answered:

"What? Oh well, I was actually coming to see my favorite patient."

There was a slight giggle from Huey. The older triplet said looking at the doctor:

"Surely you tell all your patients that.” 

The doctor smiled tenderly, leaned over to the duckling, and replied cheerfully:

"Maybe, but in your case Huey, it's true."

Scrooge smiled too, from the way that owl treated his nephew, it was easy to see why the lad trusted him. Huey was clearly in good hands. Scrooge noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and saw it was his nephew who had stepped toward Dr. Owlfang. The sailor-dressed duck asked:

"And why do you want to see him doctor?"

The doctor looked at them both and replied:

"Partly to assess his physical condition, since he has been recovering surprisingly fast. And partly… well, that would be a private thing between Huey and me, if you don't mind."

Scrooge was surprised and apparently Donald also made a strange face, since the doctor hastened to explain:

"As soon as the evaluation is over, I hope I can give you a diagnosis."

The rich duck understood instantly, Dr. Owlfang wanted to psychologically evaluate his nephew to find out what was the best treatment the lad could receive.

Guessing his intentions, the rich duck put a hand on the duck dressed as a sailor and gently began to guide him towards the exit of the room, saying:

"Oh yeah right, we get it. we’ll give yeh privacy."

"Yes, please," said the healthcare professional as he nodded.

Scrooge nodded back and concluded the conversation by saying:

"Okay, we'll wait outside."

The three adult ducks then left the room, leaving Huey and the doctor alone. Once in the hall, Fenton said to the other two ducks:

"Every day he does the same. He stays alone with him to ask him questions, I hope he can tell us something soon.” 

"What kind of questions?" a voice asked suddenly.

The three ducks turned towards the source of the voice and saw there a female duck with green plumage and blond hair. As soon as he recognized her, Scrooge glared, pointed at her with his index finger, and shouted:

"AQUACK! What are ye doing here? How could ye get in when the press was banned from the hospital?!"

Completely ignoring his outburst, the journalist with her microphone in hand, turned to the camera that accompanied her and began to speak:

“With all of you, Roxanne Featherly. We are live at Duckburg Central Hospital. I am here with Scrooge McDuck and companions who are visiting his hospitalized nephew."

Then she turned to him and continued saying:

“Tell me Mr. McDuck, is it true that your nephew was kidnapped by Mark Beaks? What reasons did he have for doing so? How did you know-? "

"What do ye think ye're doing ?!" Scrooge suddenly interrupted with a furious expression.

The reporter looked a! Indigent voice, asked:

"Excuse me?"

Scrooge grunted slightly and pointing up and down the aisle and exclaimed:

“This is a hospital! Ye can't come here and mug people like this!"

"But Mr. McDuck, our viewers deserve to know the truth," Roxanne tried to reply.

This comment only further enraged the rich duck who angrily pointed at the woman with his cane and said in an extremely harsh voice:

"The truth?! Do ye want the truth?! Well here it is! The truth is that everything regarding my nephew right now is an ongoing police investigation, so ye cannot have details of any kind, unless it is the police who provide them! And do you want another truth?" He took a step towards the increasingly surprised reporter and continued to say with evident anger in his voice:

“Another truth is that your colleagues and I don't know if ye’re one of them, may have caused trauma to my nephew! And if that is true, believe me if I tell ye I am going to sue everyone who was here that day, when my nephew was attacked and pressured to speak to all of ye, no one will go unpunished for this fact!"

His voice reflected such rage towards the press that the woman before him began to sweat. It was more than likely that she too was among those who assaulted Huey when the boy first stepped out into the hall, and now she had to fear the retaliation Scrooge might take against her career for what they did to the boy.

After swallowing, the journalist began to say:

"But Mr. McDuck-"

Scrooge didn't even let her speak by cutting her off to say instead:

"We are done, get out of here!"

Such must have been the harshness in his gaze that Roxanne Featherly widened her eyes in fear and slowly began to back away along with the cameraman beside her until they were both gone from sight. Scrooge, still scowling, turned to look at the other two ducks with him. They were both staring at him with utterly shocked expressions. Both probably surprised at how the rich duck had handled the situation. Fenton seemed to be the first to get over his surprise, and he did so by saying:

"Gee Mr. McDuck, that was… very hard,"

Scrooge opened his beak to reply, but before he could speak, his nephew spoke first, saying:

"Maybe, but I must admit if Uncle Scrooge hadn't, I would have done the same."

Scrooge sighed, actually, he knew that if Donald had been the one to “speak”, that would have been… disastrous. His nephew was too impetuous.

After this brief encounter with the press, Scrooge and Donald told Fenton to go rest. They would wait and let him know when the doctor finished.

Scrooge knew that Fenton appreciated the gesture. The Hispanic duck went for the cafeteria. That would allow him to take a break and also give him the opportunity to eat other foods than just snacks. Perhaps he would even get a chance to eat something hot, since Scrooge was well aware that having to be almost always by Huey's side, Fenton couldn’t… enjoy decent meals. The brown-plumaged duck knew from the other days he had at least a half-hour window of time before the doctor finished his exam on Huey, so he promised he would be back by then.

* * *

After he was done eating, Fenton returned with the two other adult ducks, and he did so just as the doctor finally left the room. Fenton took advantage of the moment to enter again with Huey while the two uncles of the older triplet went to speak with the doctor, in a private place to avoid possible spies.

In order to speak in private, the three adults went to the doctor's office. Once inside the office, they sat down, Owlfang on one side of the desk and Scrooge and Donald on the other. The doctor put his hands together and began to speak:

"Before presenting my conclusions, I would like to ask you a question, if you don't mind,"

"Not at all doctor, what do ye want to know?" Scrooge replied calmly. At least, the fury provoked by that… reporter, had already dissipated.

The doctor leaned back in his chair and then asked the two ducks:

"I was wondering… where did Huey get the cap and guide he's wearing now?"

"We brought it to him today," Donald answered casually.

The doctor leaned forward and asked:

"May I ask why?"

Donald was the one who spoke again:

“The explanation is simple. When my nephew was kidnapped, his guide was the only thing we found in the place where the other children were. That made it clear to us that Huey had been there with them when they took him away, but when they caught him, his guide fell,”

Scrooge decided to conclude the explanation himself, narrating the other part:

“And as for the cap, thanks to police investigations, we have learned that his cap was destroyed before his eyes. That's why we thought it would be good for him to bring him these objects that mean a lot to him."

"I understand, you thought it would help him, right?" said Dr. Owlfang with a thoughtful expression.

The two uncles looked at each other momentarily and Scrooge answered for both of them saying:

"Yes… have we done wrong?”

The doctor was quick to clarify the situation, explaining:

“No, no, on the contrary, your assumption was very correct. In fact, I think today is the day I’ve seen Huey happiest since he woke up. Without a doubt these gifts you have brought him have been very good for him,"

"We're glad to hear that," Donald said with a more relaxed expression now. Given his known bad luck, he probably feared that he had made the situation worse, so the doctor's words filled him with joy.

Dr. Owlfang changed his voice’s tone and said:

"Well, this issue settled, I would like to talk to you about another matter,"

"What is it about?" Asked Scrooge. The doctor looked at him and said:

"First of all, I must say that physically, Huey is practically recovered, which means that, in a maximum of two or three days we could discharge him,"

"That sounds wonderful!" said Scrooge cheerfully. But before he could say anything else the doctor said:

"Yes, but…"

"Here we go, there is always a ‘but’" said Donald slightly annoyed.

Ignoring him, Owlfang continued:

"The psychological damage of the little boy still worries me."

Scrooge felt his concern grow, and drawing a little closer he asked:

"What can ye tell us about that?"

The doctor closed his eyes and began to explain:

“Well, Huey is very aware it was Mark Beaks who ordered him to be kidnapped, and he also knows it was he who locked him up, but on the other hand, Beaks has been the only positive stimulus the boy has had during his captivity. I think he has developed… dependence on him, because he constantly asks me where and how he is."

Scrooge's eyes widened, and with slight panic in his voice, he suddenly asked:

"Are ye telling us that Huey has Stockholm syndrome?"

Owlfang sighed and sadly replied:

"It's… too early to say, but it's very likely."

"Oh, curse me kilts!" Scrooge exclaimed. The rich duck was very certain about one thing, that parrot was going to pay for all the damage he had done to his nephew, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to serve justice. His crimes were not going to go unpunished.

Scrooge was so lost in angry thoughts that he was surprised when he heard again the voice of the doctor who continued to explain:

"Also… Huey has developed a deep fear of the other person he interacted with in his time as a prisoner."

"Huey is afraid of Graves?" Donald asked in a slightly shaky voice. The doctor looked at him compassionately and replied:

“Indeed. Although I’m afraid that the fear towards his family, due to the acts of this Graves, is also present. It will take a while for the little one to regain the trust he felt toward his family. Likewise, it will surely take some time to get Huey to see the truth about Beaks."

"So what do ye advise us?" Scrooge asked, honestly, he was very confused about what to do next. He looked at the doctor with pleading eyes. He looked back at him and replied:

“Under normal conditions, once my patient made a full recovery I would send him home. But in this case, I don't know if your house is the best place, at least not with-"

"Not with all of us there," Donald said cutting off the doctor.

The healthcare professional looked at the duck dressed as a sailor and replied:

"Exactly, I must say that Huey seemed happy with the idea of going home, but at the same time, it was clearly visible there was fear in that idea as well."

Scrooge rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then, speaking thoughtfully, suggested:

"What if… just as Fenton has been here with him all these days, he too comes to live in the mansion, albeit temporarily, while he learns to trust us again?"

The doctor opened his beak to speak, but didn’t say anything. Actually, he remained quiet for several seconds, thus generating an awkward silence. When Scrooge began to entertain the idea of saying something, Owlfang suddenly broke the silence:

"That… is not… a bad idea, he would be in a familiar and comfortable environment for him and with someone to help him adjust to his old life again, but as I said before, it’ll probably be a long process."

Scrooge nodded and said:

"We get it, all we want is for Huey to go back to his old self,"

Owlfang closed his eyes and clenched his hands. He said:

“You must be aware this may never happen. He’ll improve, I assure you, but I doubt he’ll be who you expect again."

The two uncles looked at each other. Scrooge knew that both Donald and he wanted Huey to go back to being his usual self, but it didn't seem like an option…

"Knowing he’ll get better is enough for now," said Donald, expressing what both ducks were thinking. Scrooge simply nodded and replied:

"I agree."

The doctor nodded. Taking out a piece of paper and a pen he wrote something, when he finished, he handed the paper to the two ducks at the same time saying:

"The only thing I can do now is to recommend a specialist. A good therapist that I trust will be able to help him."

Taking the paper in his hands, Scrooge looked again at the doctor and asked:

“Can't you do it? Huey seems to trust you a lot,"

Owlfang shook his head, and speaking with a certain sadness in his voice, he explained:

“I'm afraid is beyond my specialty. I have only done a preliminary exam, but I’m not an expert on the subject, as much as I want to, I don’t think I’m the best candidate to help your nephew,"

The two uncles looked at each other again and after a brief nod from Donald, Scrooge looked back at the doctor and replied softly:

"Okay. We understand, thank you for everything ye've done for him so far,"

Owlfang smiled gently and gratefully. Later, the bird with a white coat replied:

"It’s been a pleasure, I'm glad I was able to help him. No one deserves to go through what that boy went through."

Scrooge smiled sadly, he sincerely thanked the doctor for everything he had done for the lad, and although everyone wanted Huey to be his old self again, what the doctor said was true. Huey had suffered damage that could truly be irreparable, the only thing they could do was try to minimize that damage as much as possible, helping and supporting the older triplet so that he could in time, would trust them again. Besides, having Fenton with them would probably help. So, determinately, the rich duck spoke again:

"Well then, when you discharge Huey, we’ll take him to the mansion – if the boy is okay with it – and if Fenton agrees, he’ll temporarily come to live in the mansion as well."

Donald looked at him with a smile on his beak and said:

"That sounds like a plan." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, so… Scrooge really can’t stand press. Especially Roxanne Featherly. Knowing what the reports did to Huey, it was obvious Scrooge wouldn’t be nice with them in their next meeting, but it would be worse if this meeting took place in the hospital where they were supposedly forbidden to be. I hope you liked this. Also, what do you think of what doctor Owlfang told to Scrooge and Donald? Let me know your opinions.
> 
> I’ve a great new! This Monday, I’ll start publishing another story, but this story is from another fandom. This story is about some French comics and movies I used to read and watch when I was a child. The name of those comics is: Asterix and Obelix, and the story is about a Gaul village who on 50 b.C. bravely resists Roman domination and fight against all the Empire attempts to conquer them. If you want to give this story a chance, is named: “Getafix’s mistake”.
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and guiltyaschanged for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉


	32. Back home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Well, the time has arrived… Huey will come back home! Everything will be like it was before! Or maybe not? What do you think it’ll happen? Also, this chapter could have some important revelations for Huey. Who do you think these revelations will come from? Welp, you’ll see it soon 😊, you just need to read.
> 
> Also, if you’re interested, I started publishing a new story on Asterix fandom, it’s a story named: “Getafix’s mistake” if you want to read.
> 
> Aaaaand, one last thing, in this chapter there’s a piece of art made of my own, where I present my OC Dr. Owlfang! I'm sorry, I haven't manager to attach art here directly, if someone knows how to do it, please tell me because I don't know how to do it.
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Finally, the day had arrived! The day he would be discharged! He would go back… home… 

Huey wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of going back to the mansion. It was true that he had come to consider it as his home… but after everything that had happened… he was no longer so sure of that.

The duckling looked to the other occupant of the room, his friend —and practically confidant in recent days —was talking and talking, completely oblivious to the thoughts of the oldest triplet.

Huey smiled softly, at least he had that consolation. Fenton was coming with them, he had agreed to stay at the mansion with him! And Huey couldn't have been happier about it. He pushed himself up off the hospital bed and began to collect everything he had in the room. There were so many gifts that others had brought to him. There were clothes, books, video games (courtesy of Dewey so he wouldn't get bored), there was even a list of the best Ottoman Empire episodes, made by Louie for Huey to watch whenever he wanted.

Huey's eyes softened when he reached a specific box. It was Webby's. Yes, the day Webby came to visit, she had brought him simple training items. 

_"So that you can regain strength here in the room,"_ the young girl had told him.

Huey really appreciated the gesture, and certainly, because he had read about them, he knew how to use them… mostly. He tried a few of the excel uses, and they certainly helped him to recover slightly quicker. Even Fenton tried some of the tools and was surprised to see that they could be very useful for his own training.

 _"Hey!"_ Fenton had exclaimed excitedly, _"this is very practical! With something like that, I surely would always be prepared for…"_ the Hispanic duck had stopped before finishing the sentence, probably because he knew that Huey wouldn’t be very comfortable to talk about his alter ego.

Huey couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

Just a few weeks ago they both had been in a similar situation, one of them hospitalized and the other accompanying him. Huey hadn’t had any problem talking about Gizmoduck then, but now… it was impossible for him to do so. Any mention of the superhero, made the older triplet’s body tremble.

The duckling sighed again and kept gathering things up. Pulling out a cabinet drawer next to his bed. His hand suddenly ran into something hard. When he looked to see what it was, he discovered that it was a blank notebook he had given it from Dr. Owlfang. Huey took the notebook and stared at it.

The doctor had given it to him and told him he did it so that the duckling could write in that notebook – if he wanted – his emotions, the experiences he lived during his imprisonment and how he felt about them. Because according to the owl, he believed this could help Huey to have a better understanding of what was happening to him and hopefully would help him recover sooner. The triplet remembered looking at the doctor's gift with some reluctance… but still accepted it, because of whom it came.

Huey gripped the notebook tightly, he knew the doctor had given it to help him, but for Huey, digging into his current emotions could very well mean he would have to face how he felt about his family… among other issues, and the boy didn’t feel even remotely prepared for that.

Not yet.

Quickly, Huey tucked the notebook into the bottom of the bag that had been brought for him to keep everything. He didn't want anyone to know about this notebook, not even Fenton.

Speaking of the brown-plumaged duck, Fenton seemed genuinely excited about going to live in a mansion.

"You know? I've only been there to visit, and it's never been for more than a few hours. Now, I'm going to live there… temporarily of course. But it’ll be great!" He said with eyes beaming with excitement. Huey couldn't help but giggle as he replied to his friend:

"I know, and I'm sure you will love it Fenton."

The Hispanic duck scratched the back of his neck and looked away, and then with a voice that had a touch of shame in it, he admitted:

"Surely! But it’s not because of the mansion itself, but because of the fact of finally leaving this hospital."

"I guess… you're right," replied Huey who had been caught off guard by that answer. Noticing his bewilderment, Fenton hurriedly raised his hands and clarified to the duckling:

"Hey, don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that they treat you badly in a hospital. In fact, there is no better place for you to be well taken care of, it's just…"

Huey smiled at Fenton's unfinished sentence, he knew very well what the brown-plumaged duck was trying to say, so he finished the sentence for him:

"It isn’t a place to live,"

"Exactly!" Fenton exclaimed with a wide smile. Huey also smiled and added:

"I think the same." 

"Yes, as do I," said a voice suddenly. 

The two ducks turned around in surprise to see who had just spoken, and both exclaimed at the same time:

"Dr. Owlfang!"

The doctor was next to the fully open door. He took a step forward and after clearing his throat, said:

"The door was ajar and I took the liberty of entering,"

Huey's eyes widened in embarrassment. So he had heard them… what was he going to think of him now? With a slight hint of fear, the duckling dressed in red asked:

"Won’t… you be angry about what we were saying, right?"

Doctor Owlfang cocked his head, looking puzzled. He then smiled softly and approaching the older triplet knelt in front of him and said:

"How could I be angry about something like that? Especially because I share that opinion. People should live in their own homes, and a hospital isn’t a home,"

"Oh boy, what a relief!" Huey exclaimed before he could stop himself. As soon as he said that, he quickly covered his beak and looked at the doctor with wide eyes.

For his part, and completely taken aback, the owl asked:

"Relief?"

Slowly Huey removed his hands from his beak and looked down, then weakly, explained:

"I didn’t want to leave knowing that I had made you angry… especially after everything you’ve done for me,"

The owl gently put his hand under the duckling's chin and gently tilted his head up with the clear intention of making Huey look at him. When the older triplet finally made eye contact with him, all he saw in the doctor's eyes was reassurance and understanding. Then Dr. Owlfang said to the boy:

"Oh Huey, I could never be angry with you. I think I can affirm without fear of being wrong that you always think of others before yourself, how could I be angry with someone like you?"

Huey smiled widely and throwing himself into the doctor's arms, he said:

"I’ll miss you Dr. Owlfang.” 

The owl returned the hug and said:

"And I’ll miss you too, Huey, although I hope to not see you around here for a long time."

Huey couldn't help but giggle at that comment. He also wanted it to take a long, long time to step back into a hospital, at least as a patient. Suddenly, the doctor seemed to remember something and added:

"You know? Before your uncles left the other day, we were talking, and they suggested an idea that I was unfamiliar with. Apparently, your Uncle Donald has a boat, doesn't he?"

"Yes, he does," Huey replied a little puzzled. Seeing his expression, the doctor continued with his explanation:

“Well, your uncle Scrooge thought that maybe, if you go straight back to the mansion, maybe it would be a bit too much, so it occurred to him that maybe you would prefer a smaller environment and at the same time more familiar to you, such as your uncle Donald’s boat."

The older triplet's eyes widened.

"Did Uncle Scrooge suggest that?" he asked. The doctor nodded and replied:

"Yes, although he said they left it up to you to decide. They said that you choose what you want. I’ve just let you know so you can go thinking about that… and the other thing I gave you,"

Huey looked at the doctor without knowing exactly what to answer. He knew what he meant by the 'other thing' but he didn't know if he would ever use it… he didn't want to lie to the doctor either, so he finally chose to answer:

"Yes… I'll think about it. Thank you, doctor, for everything."

"You’re very welcome, Huey. Take care." said the owl, waving goodbye to the boy.

Not long after, the two ducks were told that someone had arrived to pick them up and take them home.

The time had finally come to leave that place. With some nervousness, Huey left the room, fearing that, just like the last time, there would be a bunch of reporters who would mug him and ask a bunch of questions all at the same time. Fortunately, it seemed that the press had vacated the hospital, something the older triplet was deeply grateful for. How could his great-uncle endure these constant "attacks"? It was admirable. When he and Fenton reached the door, they found Launchpad waiting with the limo door open. It was as if they were practically at the mansion already.

* * *

Huey had almost forgotten Launchpad's wild driving style. During their trip, the driver-pilot had hit a fire hydrant for the time being, twice. He spun like a top to avoid a hummingbird woman who was walking with her dog. He caused all the balloons of a peddler to be blown up… which was all relatively little damage for Launchpad McQuack. Although, on the other hand, there was still a while to travel before reaching the mansion. Swaying from one side of the vehicle to the other, the red-clad duckling (yes, he had finally been able to put on his usual red polo shirt, and was truly happy about it) was surprised when suddenly Launchpad spoke up saying:

"I'm glad you're finally okay Huey.”

Huey froze at those words. He may have been physically fine, but… he was well aware that mentally he was _not_ well. For that reason, he awkwardly replied to McQuack:

"Yes… I'm happy too.” 

Completely unaware of Huey's discomfort, Launchpad spoke again saying:

"You know? Everyone in the mansion was very depressed since you disappeared,"

"Really?" Huey asked, eyes wide in surprise at the news. Launchpad looked at him in the rearview mirror and replied:

“Oh yeah, of course Mr. McDee was very grumpy pretty much all the time with everyone except his family. Your Uncle Donald looked like, what did the kids call him? Oh yeah! A zombie. And my great friend Dewey, Louie and also Webby were very depressed. I think the only one who acted or tried to act normally was Mrs. B. But I think she did so in an attempt to encourage others, since, in my experience, she also suffered. And let's not forget about me. It wasn’t the same to fly them from one place to another alone without you being there. I felt like… an emptiness in my heart. In short, we've all missed you,"

Huey had listened carefully to all that explanation. In fact, he knew little about how his family had coped, so the explanation – although summarized from Launchpad – was like a beacon of light to Huey that helped him understand a little better. In a slightly embarrassed voice, the duckling said:

"I… didn't know about that…"

Fenton put a hand on his shoulder and responded by saying:

"It's normal, Huey. If you were kidnapped and held against your will, how would you know?"

"Fenton is right," Launchpad added. Then Fenton smiled proudly and pointing to himself, said cheerfully:

"Of course, I am,"

Huey chuckled lightly at the current Hispanic duck pose. But the moment of joy was abruptly cut off by Launchpad's following yell:

"Take the brakes!"

Needless to say, the warning came slightly late and Huey had no time to prepare for McQuack's hard braking. In fact, if it hadn't been for the seat belt, Huey would probably have gone through the windshield.

As they recovered from the braking, Launchpad looked at both ducks and said cheerfully:

"Well, we have arrived. Welcome home, Huey."

"Thanks Launchpad," Huey replied, slightly breathless. He knew the older duck hadn't done that on purpose, it was just his unorthodox way of driving. With Fenton and Launchapd’s help, they unloaded the luggage from the limo. While McQuack parked, Fenton and Huey climbed the stairs to the mansion entrance. Once in front of the door, they stopped. Huey could feel his heart racing, it had been… a month since he had set foot in the mansion. Was it possible that something had changed in his time away?

"Nervous?" Fenton asked him suddenly. Huey looked at him and replied:

"A little," was actually terrified.

The Hispanic duck cocked his head with a sympathetic look and then asked:

"Do you want to take my hand like that day in the hospital?"

Huey shook his head and replied:

"No, I… I want to do this myself,"

"Okay, I'll stay by your side then," said the brown-plumaged duck with a shrug. The older triplet looked at him gratefully and said:

"Thanks Fenton."

The red-clad duckling took a deep breath and approaching the door, rang the bell. The response was almost instantaneous. The door opened revealing Mrs. Beakley behind it, who with a wide smile said:

"Hello Huey. Welcome. We were waiting for you,"

Then she opened the door wide and stepped away, letting the boy see what was on the other side. There, in the middle of the Hall were all his family and friends, all together, radiating with joy… even Gyro. There was also a huge banner that read: "WELCOME HOME HUEY." The duckling also saw several tables with food and drink, all together seemed…

"Have you organized a welcome party?" he asked excitedly.

Dewey stepped forward and answered his question by saying:

“Yes! At first we thought about hiding and shouting: Surprise! When you came in… but we thought it best not to scare you, so we did something simpler."

Huey looked at them all with a huge smile. He could feel tears forming in his eyes, but unlike the countless times before, this time those tears were tears of joy. In a completely excited voice, the older triplet said to everyone:

"I really appreciate it!"

After these words, the party began. Everyone ate and drank together. Launchpad joined them after he had parked the limo. Everyone enjoyed it and had fun, and thanks to the fact that his friends were mixed in with his family, Huey didn’t feel so uncomfortable upon his arrival home.

So, it happened all afternoon, when the party ended, they told Huey he could choose between going back to his room, with his brothers or that, if he still didn’t feel ready for it, they had enabled a room with two beds for him to sleep there with Fenton as he had done so far at the hospital. Or – as Dr. Owlfang had told him – he could temporarily occupy the houseboat. His Uncle Donald said he didn't mind at all moving into one of the rooms in the mansion. They also made it very clear to him they would conform to whatever he chose.

Huey found himself in a controversy. He really wanted everything to be as before, to sleep with his brothers again, but he still didn’t feel ready to sleep with them, no, still… he could see everything that Graves had done to him as if it had been them who would have done it. And while he was ashamed to admit it, he was… afraid of being alone with Dewey and Louie. The older triplet looked at his brothers, and with all the regret of his heart, told them all that for the moment he preferred to sleep with Fenton on the houseboat.

After those words, they decided then that that moment was a good time for Huey to go rest, even if he had left the hospital – he still needed rest, especially after such an exciting celebration. The older triplet had no objection to that, and meekly allowed himself to be taken to his new room. He got ready and went to bed. Fenton was by his side the whole time. Little by little the triplet was falling asleep, he was about to embrace Morpheus' dream when a door opening, a light that hit him directly in the face and a voice brought him back to wakefulness.

"Fenton? Your mother is here and wants to talk to all of us. We’re in the living room."

Huey noticed movement behind him and soon the voice of the Hispanic duck sounded when he replied:

"Okay, I think Huey's already asleep, so I'll come right away."

Fenton soon left the room and as soon as he left, Huey got out of bed. If Fenton's mother who is a cop was there to talk to them, it was probably to tell them something about her police investigation. Huey – though fearful – also wanted to know what the police had discovered.

Cautiously, the duckling entered the mansion again and stood outside the living room, hoping that no one would see him there, spying on the meeting. Suddenly, Officer Cabrera's voice reached his ears:

“After interrogating both Graves and Beaks, the parrot by showing him the evidence immediately spoke up, confessing and confirming all the evidence against him. _La verdad_ … he even seemed proud and satisfied with what he had done,"

 _Proud?_ Beaks… was he satisfied with what he had done? No… it couldn't be true… he had cared for his well-being, right? Huey felt his hands begin to shake. He couldn’t believe it. Apparently, someone else shouldn’t believe it, as he asked:

"Really?" that had been Louie.

Huey heard Fenton's mother sigh, and then she replied:

"Yes, he was proud of everything he had done. How Huey had ended up in the state he was because of his 'plan'"

 _Plan?_ Had it all been Beaks’ plan? It couldn't be true! Beaks couldn't have been acting all this time… could he? The truth ... Huey no longer knew what to think-

"That Beaks has a sick mind," said Uncle Scrooge in a clearly angry voice. Right after him, Fenton spoke in a voice that sounded… pained, and asked:

"Was he really showing no regret?"

Officer Cabrera sighed again and then she replied:

“No, not even an iota. He just smiled as he spoke and talked about how he had planned it all… _el secuestro_ … the brainwashing of Huey if refused to sign the contract and how he intended to make the boy depend on him no matter how extreme he had to go."

 _What?!_ Did Beaks tell the police all this? So… now they knew about the contract too… to tell the truth, regarding the contract… Huey felt embarrassed about it. He… had been about to surrender and sign it, all for the promise that it would end his suffering.

And now this. Everything Beaks had done for him… everything he'd suffered… had been part of that parrot's deranged plan, and he had come to believe the words of the CEO. How could he have been so stupid?

The older triplet squeezed his eyes shut and felt his body shake wildly. Now he felt much more ashamed than before. He felt despicable for falling into a trap like that.

"I can't believe it, that Beaks is a monster," Dewey said showing his natural attitude and way of being.

Huey's eyes snapped open when he heard Webby suddenly ask:

"And what about Graves?"

The question seemed to have taken her by surprise, as it took the officer a few seconds to answer the question posed by the young Vanderquack.

"The truth is, it has been more difficult to get Graves to speak, although he has finally _confesó_ he acted following Beaks' orders because he knew that, if he didn’t do so, the parrot had the means to get only him to be blamed."

"Is that to say that Graves' acts were under duress?" that was Beakley's voice. Huey felt his breathing quicken, if Graves treated him the way he did… was it all on Beaks' orders? But the hawk really seemed to enjoy-

"I think up to a _punto_ ," Fenton's mother said, interrupting the red-clad duckling's train of thought. Quickly interested in what Officer Cabrera Huey had just said, he listened carefully to whatever was going to be said next.

"Until a certain point?" Louie asked in a shaky voice. Huey couldn't help but feel bad for his brother. He knew how sensitive his little brother was, even though the triplet dressed in green knew how to hide it very well. Officer Cabrera then responded:

"Yes, from the security camera recordings, _él parecía_ … to enjoy what he was doing,"

 _I knew it!_ Graves did what he did not just because he followed orders, but because he wanted to.

Huey continued to listen as his Uncle Donald who spoke next:

“So that means you already have confessions from both of them, right? Does that mean they will go to jail soon?"

Huey couldn't see it, though he guessed Officer Cabrera had nodded before replying:

"Our investigations are practically over. We have more than enough evidence to convict them. It's just…"

"What's wrong _mamá_?" Fenton asked a little puzzled. Huey heard a slight sigh and then the policewoman replied:

"I'm not asking you to do it _ahora_ , especially after everything that happened to him, but it would be good if once he felt ready for it, that boy came to testify and tell us everything that happened."

Huey involuntarily stepped back. Did they want him to testify? No… he couldn't… the boy thought that maybe it was time to retreat before someone noticed he had been eavesdropping. He quietly left and returned to the houseboat and once there he lay down, it made him a little uncomfortable being alone in the room, but technically everyone believed he had been sleeping all that time, so to continue making them believe it, he had to hold on until Fenton return.

Huey rolled onto his side and looked over at the empty bed the Hispanic duck would occupy when he returned. All the older triplet could think about now was how naive and stupid he had been for allowing himself to be manipulated as he had by Beaks and how scared he was if he had to tell someone about everything he had experienced during his time as prisoner.

The CEO of Waddle had been playing with his mind all that time and the duckling—like a complete inept—had let the gray parrot do what he wanted with him. The older triplet was feeling very embarrassed for not having believed a fact as clear as that, even when everyone was telling him it was so.

Although it was still difficult for him to accept that, Huey tried to convince himself of one thing: Beaks had deceived him and as much as he wanted to know how he was, he could not trust the gray parrot.

Never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, so… as you could see, Huey isn’t ready to come back to his old life, but his family is there supporting him in his decisions. I particularly liked Launchpad in this chapter, being himself he probably helped Huey more than he can imagine. Also, Scrooge – even being totally against parties – agreed on make a welcome party for Huey, I’m sure the duckling appreciated it a lot.
> 
> And, as you could see, Huey discovered important things from Fenton’s mom but in a not really orthodox way. Do you think it’s a good thing Huey has learned those things? 
> 
> See you in the next chapter 😉
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and guiltyaschanged for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> P.S. If you want to see the art I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, you can search for it in: 
> 
> Tumblr: https://pilyarquitect.tumblr.com/post/632230849833844736/ill-miss-you-dr-owlfang-a-picture-related 
> 
> Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/piliarquitect/art/I-ll-miss-you-Dr-Owlfang-858363478?ga_submit_new=10%3A1602941359


	33. A promise under the stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Well… I’ve sadly to say… that this chapter, is the last chapter of this story, which doesn’t mean it’s over. I’m thinking on write a sequel about this, but it could take me time, and I’d like first to finish other stories and also finish translating other ones. I beg you a little bit of patience to see a sequel for this story. That said, I hope you’ll all enjoy this last chapter 😊
> 
> Also, I made a little drawing for this story too 😊 I hope you’ll like it!
> 
> As always, I’d like to thank Empro-8 for helping me editing this story. Honestly, without her help this wouldn’t be as good as it is, so thank you very much Empro-8 you’re amazing!
> 
> Welp, I’ll stop talking and let you read the chapter, enjoy it! 😉

Several days after Huey was finally released from the hospital, things seemed to be slowly improving. Huey started going to a therapist recommended by Dr. Owlfang, and that therapist seemed to be a very kind and understanding person, because Huey seemed to be very comfortable with her on the very first day, which was something good. According to the doctor, the older triplet needed to surround himself with people who would support him and help him regain the confidence that Beaks and Graves had taken from him.

The therapist appointments were twice a week, and despite having only visiting her for a short time, the results already seemed to be appreciable, at least a little. Huey spent more time with all of them, even told Fenton he would try to be alone with some of them, in order to also allow the Hispanic duck some rest, because – according to Huey – he was very aware that, being constantly with him was really tiring. The older triplet further acknowledged that Fenton had other business he had put aside just to take care of him, which he knew wasn't fair. He practically called it selfish on his part.

The news that Huey would try to spend more time alone with them without Fenton or someone else was something that initially surprised everyone, but later made them happy, as it showed that the duckling in red was making efforts to reintegrate himself into life with his real family.

Although it must also be said that the first time Huey was left alone with any of them was a bit disastrous. The duckling looked like he was going to have a panic attack at any moment. The situation got to such an extent that they suggested calling Fenton to come. But Huey declined, saying he had already taken up enough of Fenton’s time. 

It must be said that, admirably, and after such a disastrous first ‘meeting alone’, Huey didn’t back down and continued trying one-on-one time with his family. The only things the red-clad duckling didn't dare to do yet was stay totally and utterly alone, which was logical knowing that he had been kept locked up literally for days in isolation. Another thing the duckling still didn’t dare to do was to go back to sleep with his brothers. He couldn’t even sleep in the mansion yet, claiming it was still too early for that. He said he preferred to do it in phases: go from something small as the hospital room to something in between like the houseboat… later returning to the mansion and finally sleeping with his brothers in their shared room, just like before. But for Huey, the step of returning to the mansion hadn’t yet come. So, there was no choice but to wait patiently for it to arrive.

The truth, the fact that Huey was trying to spend more time alone with his family, even while still being nervous being around them, was something that left Webby in awe, who finally decided to ask her friend about it. 

Taking advantage of a moment in which the two of them were left alone, sitting on the sofa in the living room, the young girl turned to the older triplet and asked:

"Huey, why do you insist on being alone with us if you're obviously still afraid of being in our company?"

The red-clad duckling stared at his friend with surprise, then awkwardly replied:

“This… well… I do it… I do it because… you see, it's true that everything Graves did to me caused me to be hopelessly afraid of all of you now… but there was something, something that encouraged me to continue resisting Graves' constant attacks… something that hawk could never take away from me,"

"What’s it?" Webby asked excitedly. She was truly intrigued to know the answer. Huey for his part looked away and with a voice that seemed to have a touch of shame in it, replied:

"The love I feel for all of you, I know it sounds… a bit corny, but that's the way it is…"

Webby's eyes widened in surprise, she hadn't expected an answer like that. Opening and closing her beak several times, the young girl finally managed to articulate:

"Oh, Huey that's-"

"Pathetic?" the triplet asked cutting her off with an embarrassed voice.

Webby shook her head and rushing to hug the older triplet, the young girl said:

“No, it’s very nice! I'm glad you could resist everything that Beaks and Graves did to you thanks to the love you feel for us,"

Huey stiffened for a moment when Webby hugged him, then, using his arm as a lever, he gently pulled away from Webby and in a surprised voice asked:

"Do you really think so?"

The duckling with the bow in her hair nodded and replied:

"Yes, you don't?"

Huey looked away and sounding small and weak, began to say:

"I…"

"What's up Huey?" Webby asked, tilting her head and speaking in a slightly worried voice. The duckling dressed in red looked at the young girl momentarily and then looking away again, replied still weakly:

"While I was a prisoner, Graves made fun of me constantly every time I said this kind of things. Or even if he sensed that I was thinking something like that.” 

Eyes widening, Webby said in a pained voice:

"Really? That is very cruel!"

"..."

Huey looked at Webby with surprised eyes, but didn't know what to say next.

The red-clad young boy just looked away, he seemed to be sad as if… somehow he felt that Webby felt sorry for him but at the same time he didn’t deserve such compassion. That broke Webby's heart, who quickly and taking the older triplet by surprise, ran and hugged him again at the same time saying:

"Huey, I'm sorry."

The older triplet seemed surprised, because with a confused voice, he asked:

"Why are you sorry?"

Webby looked the older triplet in the eye, she could feel the tears beginning to form in her own orbs, and then, speaking in a shaky voice, the young girl explained:

"When Graves kidnapped you, I… I couldn't do anything, I couldn't stop him from taking you,"

And she tightened her arms around her friend's body again, almost at the same time that she did that, the young girl could feel how the older triplet suddenly stiffened, and with slight fear in his voice, the duckling then asked:

"What?"

This time it was Webby who looked away and speaking in a tremendously embarrassed voice, replied:

"You remember Graves attacked us with some kind of gas that was leaving us unconscious, right?"

Huey nodded, so Webby went on to explain:

"When Graves picked you up, I… was still conscious, but I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything… sorry."

Webby closed her eyes and felt her body tremble slightly. She was sure Huey was going to berate her for doing nothing to prevent him from being kidnapped. Thus, they remained, a few seconds in silence, seconds that Webby felt like forever as she waited for the older triplet's response.

The girl with the bow in her hair heard a sigh from Huey, and that made her cringe, preparing herself for whatever the boy was going to say, but, Webby wasn’t even remotely prepared for what Huey said next:

"It wasn't your fault Webby,"

The young girl immediately opened her eyes, looking at the red-clad duckling. Now she could clearly feel the tears in her orbs about to be shed. The truth, Huey's vision was distorted as well, something that only contributed to aggravating the pain she felt. And so, speaking tremblingly, the girl duckling said:

"But if I had been stronger…" Webby looked away, refusing to make eye contact with Huey. Suddenly and to her surprise, the young girl felt a hand on her shoulder, and when she looked at Huey, she saw that the oldest triplet was looking at her with sweetness and understanding, then the boy spoke saying:

"The result would have been the same. Graves would have caught me anyway.” 

"But I-" Webby tried to say, but was interrupted again by Huey who said:

"Webby don't torture yourself anymore. It wasn't your fault,"

The young girl wiped away her tears and smiling slightly, looked at the older triplet and said:

"Okay, Huey, I won't if you don't either,"

"What?" the red-clad duckling asked with a completely surprised look.

Webby smiled even more than before and explained next:

"I have realized you blame yourself for having mistrusted us. I don’t want you to continue to do so. Beaks and Graves constantly and deliberately manipulated into thinking like that. None of it was your fault,"

Webby stared at the boy with a beaming smile, and finally the older triplet replied:

"Okay, I promise I’ll try not to keep blaming myself."

Well, something was something. Just at that moment, footsteps were heard, and moments later Dewey and Louie appeared at the door with beaming smiles. Seeing them, Dewey said cheerfully:

"Huey, Webby, we were thinking of going outside to play in the garden."

"Yes, do you want to join us?" Louie added.

Webby saw Huey's expression change instantly, he became… radiant, as if he really yearned to go outside. He proved Webby was right when the duckling responded to his brothers' request by saying:

"Of course, why not? Are you coming Webby?"

The young girl was surprised for a few seconds and finally answered smiling:

"Yes, right away.”

The four ducklings ran outside and Webby could instantly hoe happy Huey was to be out. That gave the girl with the bow in her hair a wonderful idea. An idea that she was going to propose to Uncle Scrooge as soon as she could.

* * *

"May I know where are you taking me?" asked the older triplet who was currently blindfolded and being dragged by his brothers and Webby through the hallways of the mansion.

To Webby's delight, Uncle Scrooge had been delighted to accept her idea, an idea or rather a plan that she later proceeded to tell Dewey and Louie that night when Fenton and the older triplet entered the houseboat to sleep.

* * *

_Flashback_

_"So, well? What do you think about this idea?" said Webby in a cheerful voice and an anxious look. After having explained to the two younger triplets the idea that had occurred to her and that she had already consulted with Uncle Scrooge._

_The two brothers seemed surprised, they looked at each other and then they looked at the young girl and true to his natural enthusiasm, Dewey was the first to express what they both thought by saying with an excited voice:_

_"It's great Webby!"_

_The girl in pink saw Louie nod and later, the younger triplet added:_

_"Yes, I love it, and I think Huey will like it too,"_

_Webby clasped her hands excitedly and cheerfully, said:_

_"I’m so happy you like it! Well, will you help me prepare everything we need?"_

_"Of course! I think Huey has an extra copy of the JWG here in the room. If we find it’ll surely contain a list with everything we need," said Louie, getting up and going to another part of the room. He searched between several drawers, until he finally found what he was looking for and showed it to the other two ducks with a wide smile on his face._

_Webby smiled at the sight too, and in a cheerful voice said:_

_"Okay then, let's get to work!"_

_End of flashback_

* * *

"Easy Huey, it's a surprise, and you’ll surely like it." said Webby who was holding Huey by the shoulders and guiding him towards his destination. They left the mansion, and stopped in front of the jeep. Once there, they removed the blindfold from the older triplet, who, after blinking several times to get used to the light again, saw the vehicle, loaded with tents, backpacks, food… blinking in surprise, the older triplet turned towards his brothers and Webby and excitedly, he asked:

"Are we going camping?"

"Surprise!" they all yelled with wide smiles.

Huey smiled and Webby could see that the duckling's eyes were shining with impending tears. Then with a voice shaking with emotion, the boy asked:

"Have you done this for me?"

Dewey smiled and pointing to her, said to Huey:

"It was Webby's idea."

Huey turned to look at her and with a wide smile, asked:

"Really?"

Webby looked away, smiling sheepishly and scratching the side of her neck with her index finger. It had certainly been her idea, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the authorization of-

"That's right lad, she thought ye'd like to sleep outside, in the open air," Uncle Scrooge said suddenly as he put his hand on the girl's shoulder.

Huey, who had focused his attention on Uncle Scrooge when he appeared, looked back at her again, then said in a sincere voice:

"Thank you Webby, I really appreciate it,"

Webby felt her cheeks heat up, she really loved feeling useful, and the knowledge that Huey had liked the surprise she had contrived filled her with glee. Thus, also speaking with extreme sincerity, the young girl replied:

"You're welcome Huey,"

Just at that moment, Donald appeared with his car as well, which he stopped behind the jeep. The reason he did that was because obviously not all of them could fit in the jeep, so they decided to divide the luggage and everyone who was going camping between the two vehicles. Fenton naturally accompanied them as well, so that Huey wouldn’t be forced to sleep alone or with someone with whom he still didn’t dare to sleep. Donald and Webby’s granny were also coming, and Launchpad as Uncle Scrooge's driver so of course was also coming.

In short, they were all leaving except for Duckworth, who stayed to watch the mansion. After having loaded the last part of the luggage, Uncle Scrooge turned to the four children and cheerfully said:

"Well, if ye’re all ready, we can go now. Let's get in the jeep!"

"Yes!" the four ducklings yelled, Webby couldn't help but feel extremely happy when Huey joined their cheering, full of excitement. It seemed… it seemed as if everything was normal again.

* * *

The trip to the place where they were going to camp was entertaining, it almost seemed like when they had gone on one of their adventures before. Webby couldn't help but feel happy about it, everything seemed to be as before, except this time… she appreciated it more deeply. 

But as time went on, despite smiling and talking happily with his brothers – Huey seemed tense. His posture was slightly more rigid than it normally was. And Webby couldn't be sure, but it looked like the boy was sweating a bit.

Huey still felt uncomfortable with them. That was clear. Although he was probably hiding so the others wouldn’t feel bad about it.

Huey was a very brother like that.

They finally reached the place. As soon as they got out of the vehicles and under the instructions of the older triplet, the first thing they did was set up camp. There were a lot of things to do, and Huey was happy to distribute the tasks. Soon everyone was working on them… even Louie! Webby smiled when he saw that Huey seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

Probably, being a Woodchuck junior, the duckling had very much missed doing activities like this, and despite being at home, if all he did was go from the houseboat to the mansion, or from the mansion to the garden, or one of his appointments with his therapist, it almost seemed like Huey was a prisoner again. Webby could relate. It was for this reason that Webby came up with this idea. That way Huey could do something he loved while also getting out of the mansion grounds, proving he wasn’t a prisoner again.

To be honest, Webby particularly enjoyed this excursion immensely, since she had never been camping before. Well, at least Webby didn't consider going to an uninhabited island on a mission to train to survive like going camping, so yeah, for her, that was the first time the young girl went camping.

They spent the day doing various outdoor activities, honestly, luckily, they had one of Huey's JWG copies, and they were able to get ideas from there, if not… they wouldn’t have known what to do once they got there. Webby was overjoyed when she saw how much fun Huey was having, it had really been worth it.

At night, they all went to bed spread in the various tents they brought. Donald set up with Dewey and Louie. Launchpad and Scrooge slept in another tent. Naturally Fenton and Huey slept together in their rent. And finally, Webby slept in the last tent with her granny.

There was a moment during the night that Webby woke up, and perhaps due to the training she received from her grandmother, she realized there was someone outside, she could distinguish him thanks to the dim light that the embers of the fire still gave off. The mysterious figure was there without moving. That put the girl with the bow in her hair quickly on alert. Who was there? What did that person want? Quickly and stealthily, the young girl left the tent. She was willing to face and fight that person if necessary. She wouldn’t allow her family and friends to be harmed.

Sneaking up on the stranger, Webby stopped short as she recognized him:

"Huey?" she asked before she could stop herself.

The older triplet was sitting on one of the logs they had put around the fire. Huey was looking up at the sky when Webby called him, and upon hearing his name, the duckling quickly turned his gaze first to Webby and then back away again, as if he was ashamed to have been caught at that hour doing what he was doing.

Still without looking at her, the triplet then said:

"Hello Webby.” 

Webby walked over and sat next to him. She asked:

"May I ask what you are doing here?"

Huey shrugged slightly and then replied:

"I… well, I was looking at the stars."

"Ah… and why?" Webby asked again. She was intrigued to know why her friend was sitting alone looking at the sky.

Huey sighed closing his eyes, and finally, the boy dressed in red replied:

“You’ll see… when I was locked in that room I… many times… I dreamed of seeing the starry sky once more… to tell the truth, on the occasions when I was out of that room, because Beaks did take me out of there, I… I never really dared to ask him to let me see them, that's why I… I missed it,"

Webby leaned back slightly, then said:

"I understand, but when you went back to the mansion, why didn't you do it then?"

Huey turned is head away from Webby as far as possible and with some embarrassment in his voice, the duckling replied:

"I was… reluctant to ask Fenton or.... anyone else,"

"Really?" Webby asked again.

Huey finally looked at Webby, looking sad and slightly embarrassed when he replied:

“Fenton has been by my side all this time, and I really appreciate it. But I also know that, even if he doesn't say so, that has made him very tired. And it didn't seem fair to ask him – in his only rest period – to sacrifice even more by taking me to see a starry sky, and as for the others, I… I just didn't dare to do it. Also… with all the city lights, you wouldn't have seen as many stars as here.”

"That's true…" Webby admitted, looking up at them. The stars were quite beautiful out here. 

The two were silent for a while, until Webby finally released a sigh, said:

"Huey"

"Yes?" He asked, looking at the girl. Webby also looked at him and then said:

"Are you… are you glad you came?"

Huey smiled and after nodding, answered honestly:

"Yes, I am very happy.” 

Webby also smiled and turning her gaze towards the embers that had still survived from the fire they made earlier. The young girl said:

"You know? I like to see you so happy Huey.” 

"Really?" the duckling asked with wide eyes and a slight smile on his beak. Webby nodded and replied:

"Yes, it makes me think you're fine now,"

Huey stopped smiling and looking away, said sadly:

"I wish it were true, but I think I still have a long way to go to be ‘fine.’” 

"Oh…" Webby said sadly as well.

Almost immediately after that, Huey looked at Webby and trying to sound slightly cheerful, the boy said:

"Oh, but don't worry, you'll see how with time I will improve.” 

The girl looked at the duckling and, outlining a smile, also replied cheerfully:

"That's right! Be optimistic!"

"Thanks, Webby," Huey said in a really sincere voice.

The young girl stared at the duckling, to the point that she could sense that perhaps Huey was getting slightly nervous. At that point and before the older triplet could say anything, she said:

"Hey Huey, I would like you to promise me one thing."

"What?" the older triplet asked in turn, opening his eyes again in surprise. Webby nodded and said:

"I want you to promise me that no matter how long it takes you, you won’t give up, and that you’ll do everything possible to recover. Regardless of how much it costs you."

Huey blinked several times, probably trying to take in what Webby had just told him. After a few moments of silence, the boy, with a certain tremor in his voice, replied to the young girl:

"I… yes. I promise you,"

Webby smiled, then the young girl decided to make Huey think of something else, so, with that in mind, she said:

"Well! Now, I guess if you like looking at the stars, it's because you love them and you know them, right?"

"Yes, the truth is that I like them a lot," replied the duckling, cheering up again.

That also encouraged Webby, who, with a broad smile on her beak, then asked the red-clad duckling:

"Well then, could you explain them to me?"

"Yes, and us too" said a different voice suddenly. The two ducklings looked behind them and literally saw the whole family

standing there, staring at them with wide smiles on their beaks.

In a surprised voice, Huey asked:

"What are you all doing up?"

"We woke up when we heard someone speak," answered Uncle Scrooge, taking a step forward.

From what Webby could see, knowing they had been overheard their talking caused Huey to open his eyes in fear, and then the duckling in red asked:

"And… did you hear what we were saying?"

"Just about showing Webby the stars," Dewey replied.

Webby was sure they had probably heard more than that, but it was possible to say they had also realized that this conversation with Webby was something that Huey probably wanted to keep as a private. For that reason, they surely pretended not to have heard the 'important part 'of the conversation.

Louie also joined the scheme by adding:

"Yes! That's why we asked if we could join as well,"

"If that’s okay with you," Donald finished.

Huey was silent for a few moments, looking at all of them one by one, finally, smiling widely, the duckling responded to all with a cheerful voice saying:

"Of course, why not?"

And so, all those who had gone camping lay down on the grass, looking at the starry sky, Huey was showing them the constellations and the stories that were hidden behind each one of them. Webby looked at Huey and could see that his face was beaming with joy. That gave Webby hope.

They had passed a dark test, and their family ties had been strengthened by it. True, the road ahead was still long, and they would probably encounter many stumbling blocks. But Huey had already shown he was strong, and that he was willing to do everything in his power to recover. And they had also shown that they would never leave someone who needed them behind. Yes, everyone had shown with this ‘adventure’ that they were willing to give themselves 100% for the well-being of others.

One thing was very clear to Webby, the older triplet was going to be fine, for sure.

They had that hope.

No matter how long it took, for her part, Webby knew that neither her honorary brothers, nor her uncles, nor her granny, nor her friends, and of course, not even herself, were going to abandon Huey. They would be by his side all throughout it all and would make the duckling get better.

Neither Huey nor any of them would go through something like that again, ever. They were a family, and as a family they would always protect each other.

Always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay… that’s all. This story ends here, but as you could see, this isn’t the end. Huey still has issues to fight with, and obviously, his family will want to be there to help him. I’ve to thank Empro8 since it was her who gave me the idea of go camping and to watch the stars, and it truly was an awesome idea! So awesome that I used it to finish this story, so… thank you very much Empro! Your idea was fantastic! Also… there’s another idea someone gave me that I haven’t used in this story, but it truly is a great Idea I’d like to include it in the sequel, so, thanks for giving me that idea!
> 
> Okay, after say that, I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also would like to thank you all those who’ve read this story, those who left kudos, those who put this story on bookmarks or subscribed to it. I’d like to specially thank: DrummerGirl231, Michael_Demos and guiltyaschanged for their reviews. Thank you very much, you’re amazing!!!
> 
> P.S. If you want to see the art I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, you can search for it in:
> 
> Tumblr: https://pilyarquitect.tumblr.com/post/632862970788167680/this-is-a-piece-of-art-i-made-based-on-an-story-i
> 
> Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/piliarquitect/art/What-s-up-Huey-859059644?ga_submit_new=10%3A1603544961

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, I really hope you all are enjoyint this story, are you liking it? If so, please don’t hesitate to follow or/and put this story among your favorites, and please, do not doubt on leave a review here. It’s always nice to know what readers think.
> 
> See you in the next chapter!
> 
> Pilyarquitect


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